Led by President Donald Trump, Republicans in Congress are solidifying their opposition to extending pandemic-era subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans and seem to be coalescing around giving money directly to consumers to spend on health care. 

Meanwhile, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. continues to leave his mark on the agency, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention altering its website to suggest childhood vaccines could play a role in causing autism. 

Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico Magazine, and Shefali Luthra of The 19th join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss those stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Avik Roy, a GOP health policy adviser and co-founder and chair of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity. 

Visit our website to read a transcript of this episode.

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

Julie Rovner: CNBC’s “Cheaper Medicines, Free Beach Trips: U.S. Health Plans Tap Prescriptions That Feds Say Are Illegal,” by Scott Zamost, Paige Tortorelli, and Melissa Lee.  

Paige Winfield Cunningham: The Wall Street Journal’s “Medicaid Insurers Promise Lots of Doctors. Good Luck Seeing One,” by Christopher Weaver, Anna Wilde Mathews, and Tom McGinty.  

Joanne Kenen: ProPublica’s “What the U.S. Government Is Dismissing That Could Seed a Bird Flu Pandemic,” by Nat Lash.  

Shefali Luthra: ProPublica’s “‘Ticking Time Bomb’: A Pregnant Mother Kept Getting Sicker. She Died After She Couldn’t Get an Abortion in Texas,” by Kavitha Surana and Lizzie Presser.