SCOTUS Ruling Strips Power From Federal Health Agencies

In what will certainly be remembered as a landmark decision, the Supreme Court has overruled a 40-year-old precedent that gave federal agencies, rather than judges, the power to interpret ambiguous laws passed by Congress. Administrative experts say the decision will dramatically change the way key health agencies do business. Also, the court decided not to decide whether a federal law requiring hospitals to provide emergency care overrides Idaho’s near-total ban on abortion.

Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Victoria Knight of Axios, and Joanne Kenen of Johns Hopkins University and Politico Magazine join KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Plus, for “extra credit,” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week they think you should read, too.

Julie Rovner: The Washington Post’s “Masks Are Going From Mandated to Criminalized in Some States,” by Fenit Nirappil.

Victoria Knight: The New York Times’ “The Opaque Industry Secretly Inflating Prices for Prescription Drugs,” by Rebecca Robbins and Reed Abelson.

Joanne Kenen: The Washington Post’s “Social Security To Drop Obsolete Jobs Used To Deny Disability Benefits,” by Lisa Rein.

Alice Miranda Ollstein: Politico’s “Opioid Deaths Rose 50 Percent During the Pandemic. in These Places, They Fell,” by Ruth Reader.

Here are rough timestamps for WTH:
0:00 - Intro
1:20 - SCOTUS Overrules Chevron Doctrine
06:05 - EMTALA
11:33 - Purdue Pharma
13:26 - Social Media & Misinformation
15:57 - Transgender Health Care
18:12 - Presidential Debate
29:30 - Sterilizations Up
32:51 - Surgeon General, Guns and Social Media
39:13 - Extra Credits