I’m old enough to remember when Vance said Trump might be “America’s Hitler.” And to remember when Trump called Kamala Harris a “fascist.”

BREAKING NEWS: The group voted to require people who want a shot to be briefed on harms and benefits and tried but failed to pass a requirement for a prescription.

NPR: “Regarding Antifa…” TRUMP: “Who are you with?” NPR: “NPR.” TRUMP: “You’re still here? Won’t be for long… does Antifa have anything to do with your network?”

The chaos from the first day of a meeting of the federal vaccine committee appointed by RFK Jr. bled into the second day, as the panel reversed one decision and indefinitely postponed a vote on a hepatitis B vaccine they had already deferred once. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/h...

on this week's #WTHealth podcast: @sangerkatz.bsky.social, @alicemiranda.bsky.social, and @joannekenen.bsky.social on the CDC hearing, shutdown countdown, and more. Plus an interview with Troyen Brennan on his new book on primary care: kffhealthnews.org/news/podcast...

Houry is asked who decided the agenda for ACIP meeting tomorrow and Friday. - Houry says this is first time since she was at CDC where political appointees answerable to the secretary set agenda for scientific meeting.

I think one of the better, more subtle tributes to Robert Redford's life is the string of utterly iconic female co-stars who've come forward to eulogize him; each of them take-no-shit types like Fonda and Streisand, and every one of them without a single bad thing to say. A model for male behavior

Ask your insurance if you Koalify...

@archive.org preserved the original study, which you can find here. web.archive.org/web/20250911...

Today: - @kff.org's Julie Rovner on RFK Jr. and childhood health, - @davidfbrand.bsky.social on NYC's vacant supportive housing stock, - @datasociety.bsky.social's Jill Lepore on the Constitution, - Your religious conversions Live at 10 on 93.9 FM, AM820 or @wnyc.org

States have just weeks to apply for a slice of a new $50b fund for rural health care. How much states get will depend in part on whether they bar low-income people from using food stamps to purchase "non-nutritious foods" and reestablish the Presidential Fitness Test www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

My office assistants having a serious case of the Mondays…

i was on C-Span this am, talking ACA subsidies and MAHA report: www.c-span.org/program/wash...

new #WTHealth podcast up! Join me, @annaedney.bsky.social, @sandhyawrites.bsky.social, and @laurenweberhp.bsky.social to discuss the latest health budget news, the MAHA report, and banning drug ads on TV? kffhealthnews.org/news/podcast...

🧵...

this is why Congress has only a few weeks to make a final decision on this...

Three SCOTUS stories before lunch on a Monday when the court isn't even in session perfectly encapsulates how the increasing importance of the shadow docket has completely reoriented how the court operates and what captures the public's attention.

Three hours is NOT a marathon hearing. Just saying…

Took a day off from the news to play agility with Aspen the corgi!

Trump seems to distance himself from RFK Jr on vaccines

brand new #WTHealth podcast up; catch up on all you might have missed with @alicemiranda.bsky.social, @sarahkarlin-smith.bsky.social, and Jessie Hellmann: kffhealthnews.org/news/podcast...

not just CDC...

He's exploiting what sociologists call the availability heuristic: the more people hear about something, the more common they assume it to be. If he can spew vaccine skepticism all over the airwaves, then he can create the perception that such skepticism is more widespread than it is. 1/

I’m sorry but the statute of limitations on ham sandwich jokes has expired. Please wait until the next failed indictment to try again. Thank you.

I asked the PT to please make my broken wrist brace in Michigan colors!

Spending this August getting an up close and personal look at out health care system…

You could fund 90 percent of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting budget for two years with the public money Trump is going to spend retrofitting the plane Qatar gave him -- which he plans to keep when he leaves office.

Senate committee rejects NIH cuts, boosts budget by $400 million | STAT www.statnews.com/2025/07/31/n...

President Trump has sent letters to drug company executive demanding that they lower prices, or else...(the "or else" part is still kind of unclear)

Extra points for me this week for doing this with one hand! kffhealthnews.org/news/podcast...

New in JHPPL: special issue marking Medicare’s 60th anniversary. read.dukeupress.edu/jhppl/issue/...

quite the choice of words here...

and i thought my corgis were bad! (Aspen just pulls the blanket off)

On this week's #WTHealth podcast: @alicemiranda.bsky.social, Jessie Hellmann, and Julie Appleby on the coming ACA premium spikes, still more budget fallout, plus @oberlanderunc.bsky.social on Medicare's 60th anniversary. kffhealthnews.org/news/podcast...

I was back on @the1a.org today to talk even more about the coming Medicaid changes. Thanks for having me. the1a.org/segments/wha...

A classic coordination failure: everyone makes excuses for why they go along with authoritarianism rather than resisting. And democracy and the rule of law crumble. We thought our institutions and culture were stronger, but we are following Hungary's path.

For a newspaper ostensibly representing Washington DC, a city where 2 in 5 residents are black, in a larger metro area where 1 in 4 residents are black

Politico & Punchbowl report House Republican leadership is shutting down the Rules Committee - which is essential for moving party-line bills on the floor - for the week rather than vote on Democratic amendments on the Epstein files. Dems have effectively halted Republican legislation in the House:

New: The Congressional Budget Office's official estimate of the Republican tax and spending bill finds it would increase the number of people uninsured by 10 million by 2034.

This little nugget got her first Open FAST q (and her first qualifiibg run of 2025) on Sunday, beating one of her zippiest corgi pals by a full 4 seconds! Good Aspen!

On this week's #WTHealth podcast: @shefali.bsky.social, @sandhyawrites.bsky.social, and @joannekenen.bsky.social on the recissions bill, a major abortion precedent from West Virginia, and the latest chaos at HHS. Have a listen: kffhealthnews.org/news/podcast...

...just in time for the 35th anniversary of the ADA. Who said irony was dead?

This policy will discourage lawfully present immigrants who are eligible for Medicaid from signing up, or signing their kids up, leaving them without health insurance. That, of course, is a feature, not a bug.

‘The numbers are unambiguous’ USDA Secy. Brooke Rollins suggests people on Medicaid can replace migrant workers on farms. But most of those people are already working, explains @julierovner.bsky.social The idea “just doesn't hold up to scrutiny," says @profzeke.bsky.social.

It's been wild having covered the Obamacare repeal fight in 2017 — which dragged on for months amid multiple GOP revolts and was ultimately scuttled — to see Republicans with objections fall in line so quickly this time around after securing little-to-no changes. www.politico.com/news/2025/07...

For your holiday weekend listening: New #WTHealth podcast; everything you need to know about the just-passed budget bill, plus the latest on vaccines and abortion. With @alicemiranda.bsky.social, @sarahkarlin-smith.bsky.social, and Maya Goldman. kffhealthnews.org/news/podcast...

ICYMI: our two-person indie news outlet scooped the New York Times. Our reporting is free for everyone to read, please sign up and follow @autonomynews.co

Wisconsin passed a budget in the middle of the night that, among other things, increased provider taxes to the maximum permitted value, so they would be grandfathered before the House votes on reconciliation www.wpr.org/news/tony-ev...

As I have been saying…