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.
Additionally, Rovner is a contributing editor for National Journal Daily, a publication covering Capitol Hill.
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 °µºÚ±¬ÁÏHour 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 °µºÚ±¬ÁÏ 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.
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Years ago, opponents of abortion tried to change 'hearts and minds' on the issue. Public views haven't budged but the court may take action anyway. -
When Medicare began in 1965, its backers expected benefits to expand over time, but politics have mostly stymied that. Congressional Democrats are trying again as part of a $3.5 trillion budget plan. -
The president is one of a disappearing group of politicians who sought moderate compromises on abortion. His supporters want faster changes. But abortion-rights opponents are also taking him to task. -
Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the new head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, says she'll focus her time in charge on getting more Americans insured. -
Democrats control the new Congress by such a slim margin that passing health laws will be daunting. Instead Biden may have to use executive authority to advance his health care vision. -
In talk of the impact Amy Coney Barrett could have on abortion rights, many people overlook related cases that might be in play, including the right to birth control that the court recognized in 1965. -
The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg comes just as the Supreme Court was about to hear a case challenging the ACA. It could end Medicaid expansion and protections for preexisting conditions. -
With millions of people out of work because of the coronavirus pandemic, fewer payroll taxes are coming in to help keep Medicare's trust fund intact. -
Congress authorized $100 billion to reimburse health care providers for losses linked to the pandemic, but much of that money has gone for Medicare patients, with low-income families left behind. -
Because the public health system mostly operates in the background, it rarely gets the attention or funding it deserves ― until there's a crisis.
