Ariel Cohen and Maaisha Osman join POLITICO’s Health Care team

Ariel Cohen (via LinkedIn)

Announcement from Health Care Editor Shawn Zeller, Senior Managing Editor for Policy Clea Benson and Senior Executive Editor for North America Alexander Burns:

Our policy teams are essential in helping our readers understand the forces motivating government action — and voter reaction. That work will take on even greater importance in the new year as sweeping changes in Washington’s balance of power shape the policy debates that will define the next Congress and the next presidential election cycle.

As part of our commitment to leading that coverage, we’re delighted to announce we’ve hired two reporters to join our Health Care team, which is already producing standout work on issues that affect all Americans — from Medicare for All to RFK Jr.’s disruption of government health care agencies and established scientific norms.

Ariel Cohen starts today with a full-time focus on health care on the Hill, with a mandate to chronicle the big debates as lawmakers face pivotal choices on fixing American health care. And Maaisha Osman will join our FDA team in December, covering the decisions that shape the medicines Americans take, from drug regulation to drug pricing.

Ariel comes to us from CQ Roll Call after reporting on congressional health care policy for nearly a decade. She’s covered everything from the 2017 effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act to the bipartisan push to end surprise medical billing. Her deep network of sources helped her deliver scoops on administration moves to cut funding for key health programs and personnel shakeups within RFK’s health department. She also found former Washington Democrat Jim McDermott living as a part-time goat farmer in a small town in France.

Before CQ, Ariel worked for Inside Health Policy. She grew up in the DC suburbs and is an alum of the College of William and Mary.

Maaisha will also bring deep beat expertise to her new role at POLITICO. She previously covered the FDA and federal drug-pricing policies at Pink Sheet and Inside Health Policy. Her reporting included scooping major shake-ups in FDA leadership, big policy developments across administrations and conflicts of interest involving members of federal vaccine advisory panels and senior health officials.

Maaisha was an Online News Association Student Newsroom and Innovation Fellow in 2021 and a Society of American Business Editors and Writers Health Care Symposium Fellow in 2026. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from Northeastern University.