Julie Rovner

Julie Rovner is a health policy correspondent for NPR specializing in the politics of health care.

Reporting on all aspects of health policy and politics, Rovner covers the White House, Capitol Hill, the Department of Health and Human Services in addition to issues around the country. She served as NPR's lead correspondent covering the passage and implementation of the 2010 health overhaul bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

A noted expert on health policy issues, Rovner is the author of a critically-praised reference book Health Care Politics and Policy A-Z. Rovner is also co-author of the book Managed Care Strategies 1997, and has contributed to several other books, including two chapters in Intensive Care: How Congress Shapes Health Policy, edited by political scientists Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann.

In 2005, Rovner was awarded the Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for distinguished reporting of Congress for her coverage of the passage of the Medicare prescription drug law and its aftermath.

Rovner has appeared on television on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, CNN, C-Span, MSNBC, and NOW with Bill Moyers. Her articles have appeared in dozens of national newspapers and magazines, including The Washington Post, USA Today, Modern Maturity, and The Saturday Evening Post.

Prior to NPR, Rovner covered health and human services for the Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, specializing in health care financing, abortion, welfare, and disability issues. Later she covered health reform for the Medical News Network, an interactive daily television news service for physicians, and provided analysis and commentary on the health reform debates in Congress for NPR. She has been a regular contributor to the British medical journal The Lancet. Her columns on patients' rights for the magazine Business and Health won her a share of the 1999 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award.

An honors graduate, Rovner has a degree in political science from University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

6:37am

Mon November 5, 2012
2012 elections

Why Abortion Has Become Such A Prominent Campaign Issue

Originally published on Mon November 5, 2012 7:25 am

4:01pm

Tue October 2, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

Democrats And Republicans Differ On Medicaid Fix

Originally published on Tue October 2, 2012 3:14 pm

Credit Children's Hospital Association

Medicaid is already the nation's largest health insurance program in terms of number of people covered: It serves nearly 1 in 5 Americans. Yet at the same time it's putting increasing strain on the budgets of states, which pay about 40 percent of its costs.

Read more

7:12am

Tue September 25, 2012
It's All Politics

Romney's Medicaid remarks on '60 Minutes' raise eyebrows

Originally published on Tue September 25, 2012 9:00 am

Credit AP

It's not so much what Mitt Romney said about whether the government should guarantee people health care in his interview on CBS's 60 Minutes Sunday that has health care policy types buzzing. It's how that compares to what he has said before.

To back up a bit, Scott Pelley asked the former Massachusetts governor if he thinks "the government has a responsibility to provide health care to the 50 million Americans who don't have it today?"

Read more
Tags: 

5:55pm

Wed September 12, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

More Americans Have Health Insurance, But Not Many More

Originally published on Wed September 12, 2012 11:56 am

Credit Census Bureau

The nation's official measure of health insurance coverage turned positive for the first time in quite a while.

The Census Bureau reported a decline in the number of Americans without coverage in 2011. But the ranks of the uninsured remain pretty high.

All told, 48.6 million people, or 15.7 percent of the population, had no health insurance last year, down 1.4 million from 50 million in 2010.

Read more

9:46am

Thu August 30, 2012
NPR Health

Does mother's abortion history affect baby's birth weight?

Originally published on Fri August 31, 2012 5:16 am

Women who had multiple abortions before giving birth to a first child were more likely to have that child very prematurely or to deliver a child with a low birth weight, according to one of the first large-scale studies to look at the issue.

Read more
Tags: 

4:45pm

Tue July 24, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

After Supreme Court Ruling, Health Law Will Cover Fewer And Cost Less

Originally published on Tue July 24, 2012 2:17 pm

Credit Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

The Congressional Budget Office and Joint Tax Committee this afternoon issued their long-awaited analysis of the cost of the Affordable Care Act post-Supreme Court changes.

Their verdict? Making the expansion of Medicaid optional for states will result in fewer people (about 3 million fewer) getting coverage. But that will also reduce the overall price tag of the law over the next decade by about $84 billion.

Read more

3:02pm

Sun June 24, 2012
Health care reform

Fever-pitched countdown to the Supreme Court's ruling on health care

Originally published on Thu June 28, 2012 5:46 am

Credit Alex Wong / Getty Images

Anticipation has reached a fever pitch, and the waiting is almost over.

This week, the Supreme Court is almost certain to issue its decision on the constitutionality of President Obama's health care law. The decision could have far-reaching implications for the legal landscape, the nation's health care system and even the Supreme Court's legacy.

Read more

8:49am

Fri June 22, 2012
reforming health care

Why many young adults might lose coverage if health law falls

Originally published on Thu June 28, 2012 6:39 am

Credit Courtesy of June Blender

When it comes to health care, even the seemingly easy things become hard.

Take coverage for young adults under the Affordable Care Act.

Read more

11:37am

Sun June 17, 2012
health care

Insurers wait for verdict on health care law and their bottom line

Originally published on Fri June 15, 2012 3:25 pm

Credit John Rose / NPR

All eyes these days are trained on the U.S. Supreme Court, which is expected to rule sometime this month on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act.

But some people are waiting more anxiously for the court to rule than others. Among them are those with a major financial stake in whether the law goes forward or not and if so, in what form.

Read more

1:07pm

Tue January 17, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

More walkers with headphones getting clobbered, study suggests

Originally published on Tue January 17, 2012 12:10 pm

Credit iStockphoto.com

By now we all know that distracted driving can kill you. But a new study suggests that distracted walking can be pretty deadly, too.

Read more