Sen. Cassidy Unleashed – KFF Health News

Just days after Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who is also a doctor, was ousted in a primary election, he has already begun to separate himself from the agenda of President Donald Trump, who endorsed one of his opponents. Cassidy has half a year left in office and could, in that time, reshape health policy in an administration from which he’s now effectively freed.

Meanwhile, a potentially serious Ebola outbreak in central Africa has experts worried that the U.S.’ dismantling of much of the nation’s public health infrastructure leaves it more vulnerable than in earlier outbreaks.

This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico.

Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:

• Cassidy, the chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, is still in charge of nominations for some major vacancies at the Department of Health and Human Services, including commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and surgeon general. Now that he’s no longer tied to pleasing Trump or HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cassidy will have more independence when it comes to who could get confirmed to fill some of these key health posts.
• Kyle Diamantas, the acting head of the FDA, is trying to mend fences with anti-abortion activists concerned because he represented Planned Parenthood in his private law practice. Meanwhile, the promised safety study looking at the abortion pill mifepristone has apparently not yet begun — not because the FDA was delaying it but because officials have been unable to get access to a needed database.
• Kennedy, having reshaped the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, is now taking aim at another key group of health advisers, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which helps determine which preventive services are valuable enough to merit insurance coverage.
• A new analysis from KFF shows that many more enrollees in Affordable Care Act plans now have much higher deductibles to pay before coverage kicks in, potentially leading to cases in which, even with insurance, patients will be unable to afford care. At the same time, the Trump administration is proposing new rules for 2027 that would encourage health plans with still higher deductibles.

Also this week, Rovner interviews health policy professor Miranda Yaver, the author of the new book Coverage Denied: How Health Insurers Drive Inequality in the United States.

Plus, for “extra credit” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week they think you should read, too:

Julie Rovner: The Wall Street Journal’s “How Zyn Became All the Rage Inside Trump World — Including With RFK Jr.,” by Liz Essley Whyte, Josh Dawsey and C. Ryan Barber.

Alice Miranda Ollstein: Stat’s “1 in 8 Women Drink During Pregnancy. Experts Dread the Consequences,” by Isabella Cueto.

Joanne From: The Associated Press’ “A Crisis of Conscience Spurred This Christian IVF Doctor’s Career Pivot,” by Tiffany Stanley.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg: KFF Health News’ “Religious Anti-Abortion Center Finds Opportunity in Town Without OB-GYNs,” by Jasmine Orozco Rodriguez.

Also mentioned in this week’s podcast:

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