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Weeks ago, the tax bill under consideration in Congress became a health bill, too. But now it could also trigger major cuts to the Medicare program.
This week鈥檚 鈥淲hat the Health?鈥� guests are:
Julie Rovner, Kaiser Health News
Joanne Kenen, Politico
Paige Winfield Cunningham, 聽The Washington Post
They discuss how a little-known law prohibiting federal deficits could force big cuts to Medicare and many other defense and domestic programs if the tax bill passes as currently configured in the House and Senate.
Among the podcast鈥檚 takeaways:
- A possible delay in negotiating a year-end spending bill puts the fate of the Children鈥檚 Health Insurance Program in doubt. States are starting to run out of money for the program, whose federal authorization expired Oct. 1.
- A Senate committee heard from Alex Azar, a former drug company executive and President Donald Trump鈥檚 nominee to head the Department of Health and Human Services. Much of the discussion was about what he might do to contain drug prices.
- The National Academy of Medicine issued its own recommendations about how to make drugs more affordable, including the idea of letting government programs negotiate with drugmakers and possibly limit which drugs the government would pay for.
Plus, for 鈥渆xtra credit,鈥� the panelists recommend their favorite health stories of the week they think you should read, too.
Julie Rovner: ProPublica鈥檚 鈥�,鈥� by Marshall Allen.
Joanne Kenen:聽 The Atlantic鈥檚 鈥�,鈥� by James Winnefeld.
Paige Winfield Cunningham: The Washington Post鈥檚 鈥�,鈥� by Terrence McCoy.
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