KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Ousted CDC Officials Clap Back at RFK Jr.

Fired less than a month after being confirmed as head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Susan Monarez appeared at a dramatic Senate hearing this week alongside another ousted CDC official and directly contradicted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy’s earlier testimony about why she was fired.

Monarez told the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee that Kennedy ordered her to agree to approve changes to the childhood vaccine schedule soon to be recommended by a CDC advisory panel, regardless of scientific evidence, and to fire senior career scientists who the secretary felt did not share his vaccine views.

Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats in Congress are at a standoff over government funding, with less than two weeks to go before a potential shutdown. Democrats — whose votes are required to pass a bill in the Senate — say they won’t vote to keep the government open unless Republicans agree to extend expanded subsidies for Affordable Care Act insurance plans that otherwise expire at the end of the year. Republicans are so far resisting those calls, although some are concerned that the resulting premium spikes would affect their own voters.

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, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times.

Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:

• Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) — who, as chairman of the HELP Committee, called the hearing and is a gastroenterologist — found himself pushing back on some of his GOP colleagues, particularly on the importance of vaccinating newborns against hepatitis B. Cassidy, who is up for reelection next year and faces a primary challenge, is in a delicate position regarding the oversight of the Trump administration’s health policies.
• The hearing showcased broad, across-the-aisle agreement that trust in the CDC has eroded — along with a stark divide over the cause and who’s at fault. Democrats point at Kennedy and the Trump administration, while Republicans blame the agency’s handling of the covid-19 pandemic. Historically, Americans have tended to trust public health officials; now, states are starting to create a patchwork of policies.
• Congress is struggling to agree on even a stopgap measure to keep the federal government funded, increasing the chances of a government shutdown on Oct. 1. Democrats are pushing to extend enhanced federal ACA subsidies as part of a deal, but that issue could be kicked down the road, injecting uncertainty into this year’s open enrollment process, which begins Nov. 1.
• And more details are emerging about the $50 billion rural health fund inserted at the eleventh hour into Trump’s major domestic policy law. As the federal government begins soliciting applications for funding from states, it’s becoming clear that there are strings attached — and that the funding isn’t entirely designated for rural hospitals after all.

Also this week, Rovner interviews Troyen Brennan, former chief medical officer at Aetna and CVS, on his new book about primary care, “Wonderful and Broken: The Complex Reality of Primary Care in the United States.”

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

Julie Rovner: The New York Times Magazine’s “Trump Is Shutting Down the War on Cancer,” by Jonathan Mahler.

Margot Sanger-Katz: ProPublica’s “Programs for Students With Hearing and Vision Loss Harmed by Trump’s Anti-Diversity Push,” by Jodi S. Cohen and Jennifer Smith Richards.

Alice Miranda Ollstein: The New York Times’ “I Have Dental Insurance. Why Do I Pay So Much for Care?” by Erica Sweeney.

Joanne Kenen: Politico Magazine’s “Why Voters Will Feel the Impact of GOP Health Cuts Before the Midterms,” by Joanne Kenen.

Also mentioned in this week’s podcast:

• NBC News’ “Data Investigation: Childhood Vaccination Rates Are Backsliding Across the U.S.,” by Erika Edwards, Jason Kane, Stephanie Gosk, Mustafa Fattah, and Joe Murphy.
• The Washington Post’s “Why 1 in 6 U.S. Parents Are Rejecting Vaccine Recommendations,” by Lauren Weber, Scott Clement, Emily Guskin, and Lena H. Sun.
• Politico’s “The Rural Health ‘Hunger Games’ Are Underway,” by Alice Miranda Ollstein.

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