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.

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6:28pm

Fri June 29, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

The Day After A Health Care Crescendo, Each Side Plays A Familiar Refrain

Originally published on Fri June 29, 2012 10:26 pm

Credit David Goldman / AP

On the day after the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of President Obama's health care law, Washington returned to business as usual.

In other words, supporters of the law were busy praising its virtues, and opponents calling for its demise.

Over at Georgetown University Law Center, several health law experts got together to dissect the court's ruling and what it might mean down the line.

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11:13pm

Thu June 28, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

High Court Health Care Ruling Shifts Action To States

Originally published on Fri June 29, 2012 9:27 pm

Credit Kevin Dietsch / UPI /Landov

The Supreme Court's decision to uphold nearly all of the Affordable Care Act may move the debate to the presidential campaign trail. But it shifts much of the burden of implementing the law to the states.

States are actually responsible for the lion's share of getting people without insurance covered under the health law.

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5:01pm

Wed June 27, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

Medicaid Expansion Goes Overlooked In Supreme Court Anticipation

Originally published on Wed June 27, 2012 6:20 pm

Credit Adam Cole / NPR

When the Supreme Court announces its long-anticipated decision on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, all eyes will be on the so-called individual mandate. That's the section of the law that requires most Americans to either have health insurance or pay a penalty starting in 2014.

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6:04am

Sun June 24, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

Countdown To The Supreme Court's Ruling On Health Care

Originally published on Thu June 28, 2012 8:46 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.

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3:04am

Fri June 22, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

Why Many Young Adults Might Lose Coverage If Health Law Falls

Originally published on Thu June 28, 2012 9:39 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.

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6:15pm

Tue June 19, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

How Opponents Won The Health Care Messaging War

OK, so it's not exactly news that the Obama administration hasn't done the best job in the world selling the Affordable Care Act to the American public.

But now the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism has some statistics to demonstrate just how sorry that job has been. And it suggests that the media gets at least some of the blame.

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4:35pm

Mon June 18, 2012
It's All Politics

A Horse Is A Horse, Unless Of Course It's Ann Romney's Dressage Champ

Originally published on Mon June 18, 2012 7:26 pm

12:09pm

Fri June 15, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

Insurers Wait For Verdict On Health Care Law And Their Bottom Line

Originally published on Fri June 15, 2012 6:25 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.

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5:00pm

Thu June 7, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

Abortion-Rights Advocates Pin Hopes On Defense Bill

Credit Alex Wong / Getty Images

Since Republicans took back the U.S. House in the 2010 elections, abortion has been a fairly constant theme. The House took eight separate abortion-related votes in 2011 — the most in a decade, according to NARAL Pro-Choice America.

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7:08pm

Tue June 5, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

Romney's Health Care Prescription Gives Some Conservatives Heartburn

Originally published on Wed June 6, 2012 8:33 am

Credit Charles Dharapak / AP

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney insists that when it comes to health care, his first priority is the full repeal of the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

But some of his actions of the past few days have conservatives scratching their heads.

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3:27pm

Fri May 25, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

Backers Of Cost-Free Coverage For Birth Control Fault Legal Challenges

Credit Andrew Shaw / iStockphoto.com

You know all those lawsuits now pending around the country charging that the Obama administration's rule requiring most health insurance plans to offer no-cost contraception is a violation of religious freedom?

Well, a whole bunch of supporters of the rule are chiming in now to say that argument has no legal merit.

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5:27pm

Wed May 23, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

By Putting Patients First, Hospital Tries To Make Care More Personal

Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 7:22 pm

No one likes to go to the hospital.

But some hospitals around the nation are trying to make their patients' stays a little less unpleasant.

They're members of an organization called Planetree, which was founded by a patient named Angelica Thieriot, who had a not-so-good hospital experience back in the 1970s.

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5:19pm

Tue May 22, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

Woman Charged In Death Of Fetus Is Out Of Jail

Credit Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Dept. / AP

Bei Bei Shuai is out of jail for the first time since March 2011.

Shuai, a Chinese immigrant who lives in Indiana, is still facing charges of murder and feticide following a failed suicide attempt in December 2010, when she was 33 weeks pregnant.

She was released today after posting a $5,000 bond.

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4:21pm

Mon May 21, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

Catholic Groups Sue Obama Administration Over Birth Control Rule

Credit iStockphoto.com

So much for compromise.

A total of 43 Catholic educational, charitable and other entities filed a dozen lawsuits in federal court around the nation Monday, charging that the Obama Administration's rule requiring coverage of birth control in most health insurance plans violates their religious freedom.

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1:20pm

Mon May 21, 2012
Shots - Health Blog

Health Think Tank Crunches Health Prices For The Masses

Originally published on Tue May 22, 2012 9:06 am

It turns out we may not know nearly as much about all the money spent on health care in the U.S. as we thought we did.

But there's a new group that wants to, well, remedy that.

The problem, Martin Gaynor, chairman of the Health Care Cost Institute, told Shots, is that "two-thirds of the population has private [health] insurance, but most of the information comes from Medicare."

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