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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Health Care
4:33 am
Tue October 30, 2012

Can Romney Really Repeal Obamacare?

Originally published on Tue October 30, 2012 10:14 am

Mitt Romney says he'll grant a waiver to all 50 states on Day 1 of his presidency so that they don't have to comply with the Affordable Care Act. But even his supporters question whether he would have the legal authority to do that. He's also promising to repeal it — a process that could take months, at a minimum — and he may not be able to totally repeal the law.

Shots - Health News
6:06 pm
Wed October 17, 2012

Romney Tries To Soften Birth Control Message

Credit Carolyn Kaster / AP
President Obama and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney sparred over birth control, among other things, at the second presidential debate Tuesday in Hempstead, N.Y.

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has been firmly anti-abortion during this campaign.

But during Tuesday's debate on Long Island, N.Y., Romney charged that President Obama misrepresented his position on birth control. Here's what Obama said, during what began as a discussion of pay equity for women:

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Shots - Health News
4:33 pm
Tue October 16, 2012

Medicare: Where Presidential Politics And Policy Collide

Credit Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images
President Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney first debated Medicare on Oct. 3.

Originally published on Tue October 16, 2012 6:06 pm

Medicare, the federal health insurance program for about 50 million senior and disabled Americans, is simultaneously one of the most popular and imperiled programs in America.

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Shots - Health Blog
5:57 pm
Fri October 12, 2012

Vice Presidential Candidates Spar Over Medicare

Credit Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images
Vice President Biden (left) and Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan during Thursday's debate.

It's hardly surprising that Thursday night's vice presidential debate in Danville, Ky., would feature a spirited debate about Medicare. GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan is the author of a controversial Medicare proposal that Democrats have been campaigning against for more than a year now.

But fact checkers have raised some flags about some of the claims the candidates made.

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Shots - Health Blog
6:02 pm
Thu October 11, 2012

Romney: People Don't Die For Lack Of Insurance

Credit Evan Vucci / AP
Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney boards his campaign plane Thursday in Dayton, Ohio, for a flight to North Carolina. In comments to The Columbus Dispatch, Romney said uninsured Americans don't die from a lack of health care.

Originally published on Tue October 16, 2012 3:48 pm

Another day, another editorial board, another controversial remark for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. On Wednesday, it was abortion. On Thursday, health care.

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