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.

Pages

6:11pm

Tue June 18, 2013
Shots - Health News

House Passes Bill That Would Ban Late Abortions

Originally published on Tue June 18, 2013 6:43 pm

Credit J. Scott Applewhite / AP

The House has passed one of the most far-reaching abortion bills in decades. But it's unlikely to ever become law.

By a mostly party-line vote Tuesday of 228-196, lawmakers passed the "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act," which would ban nearly all abortions starting 20 weeks after fertilization.

Read more

12:59am

Mon June 17, 2013
Shots - Health News

To Find Out How The Health Law Affects You, Ask The President

Originally published on Mon June 17, 2013 11:13 am

Credit Stephen Lam / Getty Images

Call it the Affordable Care Act, call it Obamacare, call it whatever you want — it's coming. And soon. In less than four months people without health insurance will be able to start signing up for coverage that begins Jan. 1.

A lot has been said about the law, most of it not that understandable. So starting now, and continuing occasionally through the summer and fall, we're going to try to fix that.

Read more

11:38am

Thu June 13, 2013
Shots - Health News

Judge Reluctantly Approves Government Plan For Morning-After Pill

Originally published on Thu June 13, 2013 2:11 pm

Credit AP

An obviously unhappy Judge Edward Korman has approved the Obama administration's proposal to make just one formulation of the morning-after birth control pill available over the counter without age restrictions.

But in a testily worded six-page memorandum, the federal district judge made it clear he is not particularly pleased with the outcome. He has been overseeing the case in one way or another for more than eight years.

Read more

4:20pm

Tue June 11, 2013
Shots - Health News

Administration's Plan For Morning-After Pill Pleases No One

Credit ASSOCIATED PRESS

Reaction was swift to the Obama administration's announcement Monday night that it was dropping a long-running legal battle to keep age restrictions on one type of the morning-after birth control pill.

But like just about everything else in this decade-long controversy, the latest decision has pleased just about no one.

Read more

3:03pm

Wed June 5, 2013
Shots - Health News

Court Says Some Morning-After Pills Must Be Available OTC Now

Originally published on Wed June 5, 2013 4:00 pm

A federal appeals court has dealt the Obama administration yet another blow in its quest to keep at least some age restrictions on the sale of emergency contraceptive pills.

Read more

1:53pm

Tue June 4, 2013
Shots - Health News

Maternity Coverage Sought for Young Women On Parent's Plan

Originally published on Tue June 4, 2013 4:00 pm

Credit iStockphoto.com

Young women covered by a parent's health insurance don't necessarily get maternity coverage. The National Women's Law Center thinks it may have found a way to get them benefits.

The group has filed sex discrimination complaints against five large publicly funded employers, using a little-noticed provision of the Affordable Care Act that bars discrimination in health benefits on the basis of gender.

Read more

3:30pm

Thu May 30, 2013
Shots - Health News

Administration Touts Competition In Insurance Exchanges

The Obama administration is countering criticism that the new health insurance exchanges will be lacking in competition, though it's doing so a bit quietly.

Read more

4:20pm

Thu May 23, 2013
Shots - Health News

Abortion Opponents Try to Spin Murder Case Into Legislation

Originally published on Thu May 23, 2013 6:23 pm

Credit Matt York / AP

As predicted, abortion opponents on Capitol Hill are wasting no time in their efforts to turn publicity over the recent murder conviction of abortion provider Kermit Gosnell to their legislative advantage.

Their latest goal: a federal ban on most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Read more

1:00am

Wed May 22, 2013
Shots - Health News

Boomer Housemates Have More Fun

Originally published on Fri May 24, 2013 9:21 am

Today more than 1 in every 3 baby boomers — that huge glut of people born between 1948 and 1964 — is unmarried. And those unmarried boomers are disproportionately women.

Read more

1:12pm

Thu May 16, 2013
Shots - Health News

Swell Of Goodwill For First Medicare Chief Confirmed Since 2004

Credit Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP

When the Senate voted Tuesday to make Marilyn Tavenner the official administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, it was the first time the world's greatest deliberative body had approved someone to head the huge health agency since 2004.

That's right, you have to go way back to the Bush administration to find Dr. Mark McClellan, the last person to be officially put in the post.

Read more

Pages