Oct. 1 marked the official end to this year鈥檚 effort to 鈥渞epeal and replace鈥� the Affordable Care Act. But the start of fiscal 2018 also marked the end of the federal authorization for the popular Children鈥檚 Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Congress has belatedly begun work to renew the program, but offsetting the $8 billion cost is likely to cause some partisan heartburn.
CHIP is far from the only health news in Washington this week. Other hot items include:
- Washington鈥檚 latest parlor game: Who will replace Tom Price as secretary of Health and Human Services? The list of candidates is long 鈥� but so is the list of people who aren鈥檛 interested.
- Continuing efforts at bipartisanship: If Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) could broker a compromise for their discreet effort to stabilize the insurance marketplaces, it would represent a sea change in the politics surrounding the federal health law. But getting something through the House is still a big question mark.
- Democrats divided over health, too: Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) says his proposal to allow people from age 50 to 64 to buy into the Medicare program is a common-sense fix that would help lower premium costs on the health law marketplaces.
In this episode of 鈥淲hat the Health?鈥� Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Stephanie Armour of The Wall Street Journal, Margot Sanger-Katz of the New York Times, and Joanne Kenen of Politico discuss these issues and more.
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: Bloomberg鈥檚 鈥�,鈥� by Anna Edney
Margot Sanger-Katz: The New York Times鈥� 鈥溾�� by Aaron Carroll and Austin Frakt.
Joanne Kenen: Politico鈥檚 鈥�,鈥� by Dan Diamond, Rachana Pradhan and Adriel Bettelheim; and 鈥�,鈥� by Andrew Restuccia, Josh Dawsey and Dan Diamond.
Stephanie Armour: The Los Angeles Times鈥� 鈥�,鈥� by Michael Hiltzik.
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