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 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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12:01am

Thu June 23, 2011
Health

GOP Hopefuls Divided Over Anti-Abortion Pledge

Credit John Moore / Getty Images

For the first time in memory, every Republican candidate running for president in 2012 proclaims him or herself to be anti-abortion. But just how anti-abortion are they?

Marjorie Dannenfelser wanted to find out. So Dannenfelser, the head of the Susan B. Anthony List — a group founded to elect anti-abortion candidates — created "The Pro-Life Presidential Leadership Pledge," and asked every Republican presidential candidate to sign it.

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6:42pm

Mon June 20, 2011
Shots - Health Blog

McKinsey Stands By Contested Health Insurance Survey

Credit Michael McCloskey / iStockphoto.com

Under fire from Democrats in Congress, consulting firm McKinsey and Company today released its methodology for a controversial survey that found as many as 30 percent of employers might drop health insurance after the new health law takes effect in 2014. But the hot water McKinsey's in doesn't seem to be cooling off.

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5:15pm

Fri June 17, 2011
Shots - Health Blog

McKinsey Health Insurance Survey Raises Ruckus, Questions

Credit iStockphoto.com

The influential consulting firm McKinsey & Company caused quite a stir when it published an article last week predicting that nearly a third of employers "will definitely or probably stop offering" health insurance to their workers after 2014.

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9:29am

Thu June 16, 2011
Shots - Health Blog

Pressure On Planned Parenthood Grows, As Another State Cuts Funding

And then there were three.

The North Carolina Legislature overrode a veto by Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue Wednesday, approving a state budget that bans public funds from going to Planned Parenthood.

That makes North Carolina the third state in a month to move toward restrictions on government funding of the reproductive services group.

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12:51pm

Wed June 15, 2011
Shots - Health Blog

Outpatient Medical Errors May Surpass Those In Hospitals

Credit Mark Winfrey (EyeMark) / iStockphoto.com

It's been a dozen years since the Institute of Medicine shocked the public by estimating that as many as 98,000 people were dying annually because of medical mistakes in the nation's hospitals.

But results from a study published in this week's JAMA suggest that outpatient care may be just as hazardous to your health.

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