Washington Post taps Roubein to cover FDA

Rachel’s mission is to chronicle a sprawling federal agency whose work affects the lives of every American every day, whether it’s vaccines to thwart seasonal viruses, drugs to reverse the ravages of cancer or measures to protect the nation’s food supply.

During her time presiding over the Health 202, which has since been renamed the Health Brief, Rachel brought tireless determination and boundless zeal to charting health policy from Capitol Hill to corporate boardrooms, and did so with collegiality and good cheer amid the unforgiving demands of a daily newsletter.

Rachel also managed to carve out time to collaborate on signature stories after the fall of Roe v. Wade, reporting on how a triumphant antiabortion movement grappled with its divisions; how Republicans deployed a new playbook on abortion in the first legislative sessions without Roe; and how abortion providers navigated conflicting rulings on the abortion pill. She broke the news that Democrats were adding measures to a health and climate bill to make insulin more affordable and had the exclusive on Congress clinching a deal to pay for Medicaid in Puerto Rico and other territories.

The same ethos of camaraderie that marked her work on the Health 202 will prove indispensable in her new role as she collaborates with journalists from National’s Health and Science team, as well as others in the newsroom, including Business and Well+Being. She recently partnered with Lena Sun to cover an avian flu outbreak, including an ahead-of-the-pack story about the fractured government response.

Rachel joined The Post in 2021 from Politico, where she worked as a health reporter covering Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Earlier, Rachel wrote about health care for the Carroll County Times in Maryland and about health policy for National Journal and the Hill.