![Rovner Julie Aih24](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/3c0d18ad-bdd8-43c3-9fa8-2951d0cd5d2f/Rovner_Julie_AIH24.jpeg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=290&q=80&rect=47%2C0%2C183%2C183&w=290)
Julie Rovner
Chief Washington Correspondent, KFF Health News
Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent for KFF Health News and host of its weekly health news podcast, "What the Health?" She joined KFF Health News in 2014 after 16 years as health policy correspondent for NPR, where she covered the passage and implementation of the Medicare Modernization Act and the Affordable Care Act, among others. She is the author of a critically-acclaimed health policy reference book, "Health Care Policy and Politics A-Z," now in its third edition, and has contributed to several other volumes on health policy.
Previously
![The Second Fifty: Mid-Life and Beyond](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/e7b16919-28c0-4ff2-bf24-c6999fd0b170/240621_second_fifty_025.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=130%2C74%2C3709%2C2084&w=400)
Opportunities and risks evolve as we reach the age of 50 and consider how best to celebrate our second half of life. With people living so much longer than in the recent past,...
![What the Health: Election 2024 (live podcast recording)](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/56c6f4af-4eac-4eca-baa7-0bc971fb7c8f/53805577321_4b63018d06_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=108%2C425%2C3829%2C2156&w=400)
In a live podcast recording, health policy journalists talk about hot-button health issues and what they mean for the upcoming election. From the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid...
![Three HHS Secretaries in Conversation](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/a35abda4-e568-445e-a7d1-9e7f518a8683/52993205718_23dbcfbe9a_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C33%2C1600%2C900&w=400)
With an annual budget of $1.65 trillion, the vast US Department of Health and Human Services oversees Medicare, Medicaid, the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug...
![KHN's 'What the Health' Podcast: The Politics of Health Care (Live Taping)](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null095c6f7a-e4f8-4899-bda6-49f91444eb96/KHN_Podcast_AIH19.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C1920%2C1080&w=400)
Despite the ferocious partisanship that too often characterizes health policy discussions in the United States, temperate experts on both sides of the political aisle are thin...
![Wiped Out: Medical Debt in America](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nullf9d1d53a-81fd-49d6-854b-651e2a6cfeb0/48115014068_0fbacfd49b_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C104%2C1600%2C901&w=400)
Medical debt is the number one reason people go bankrupt in the United States. Seventy-nine million Americans, including seven million elderly people on Medicare, are either p...
![The US Health Care Agenda: Top Journalists Explore the Issues](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nullcb057699-6a28-4dd5-b32e-0b95f292752a/US-Health-Care-Agenda.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C1600%2C900&w=400)
Once again, health care is bubbling to the surface of public and policy conversations. The phrase “Medicare for All” is on everyone’s lips — in the halls of Congress, on the p...
![Legislators Who Built Obamacare Look Back and Ahead](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/19c95bd1-fae8-4d92-9aa8-54912da92f6c/42267027084_03aee9208a_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=755%2C269%2C7488%2C4198&w=400)
The Affordable Care Act became law because five congressional leaders made it happen. These committee chairs — two from the US Senate, three from the House of Representatives...
![KHN's 'What the Health' Podcast: The State of State Health (Live Taping)](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/abcc814d-dc51-4e83-94a6-951f8342b55f/42251716914_7fb6c6085f_o.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C3500%2C1971&w=400)
The states shoulder a significant amount of responsibility for tackling the opioid epidemic, reversing obesity trends, and reducing tobacco use within their borders. They also...
![In the Weeds: Health Reform under President Obama](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nullbc5da162-c674-47ee-a8ff-c09bcc28a38f/35465746416_f4985eff6b_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C135%2C1600%2C899&w=400)
What went right and what went wrong with health care under the Obama Administration? Surely some reasoned, thoughtful answers lie between the firmly held poles where ideologue...
![How Safe Is Your Hospital?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/nullf8906034-9d8d-4b5c-8ff9-2b1f00e196d4/35447016336_6a88059a07_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C169%2C1600%2C899&w=400)
Medical errors in hospitals rank as the third leading cause of death in the United States, exceeded only by cancer and heart attacks, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins...
![Late Breaker: Health Reform Legislation to Arrive on Senate Floor](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null666b8fe9-d149-4d18-87e2-0f6c275f18da/35319397152_c625244865_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C324%2C1068%2C599&w=400)
US Senator Mitch McConnell has just announced that he will bring health reform legislation to the Senate floor for a vote next week. What is actually proposed in this bill, wh...
![Deciphering and Manipulating the Genetic Code](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null82356c96-040b-4c92-8ee3-3b6b52bef50f/29436569472_0bec5f9e69_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C189%2C1389%2C780&w=400)
The technology for analyzing the genetic code of animals, including humans, has grown more sophisticated even as its cost has fallen dramatically. Increasingly, we can do a lo...
![Regulating E-Cigarettes, Cigars, and Hookah – How Far Has the Government Gone?](https://aspenideasfestival.imgix.net/null4039b72b-ff04-4a10-8fb4-56e17cb1228c/27783540802_29905b5d58_h.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=min&fm=jpg&h=225&q=80&rect=0%2C0%2C1600%2C899&w=400)
In May, 2016, the FDA finalized a rule extending its authority to all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, cigars, hookah tobacco and pipe tobacco. This historic rule all...