Tag: Health Equity

The Health Insurance Black Box: Why Employer Healthcare Costs Keep Rising

        THIS TIME ON CODE WACK!   What challenges do employers face when providing health coverage to their employees? And what role do health insurers and Pharmacy Benefit Managers—prescription drug middlemen known as PBMs—play in shaping costs, coverage, and access to care? […]

States Push Back Against Medicaid Managed Care

            THIS TIME ON CODE WACK!   Today, most people on Medicaid get their care through private insurers called Managed Care Organizations, or MCOs – like Aetna and UnitedHealthcare. Critics say these companies add layers of bureaucracy that make it […]

The Middlemen Making Money Off Medicaid

            THIS TIME ON CODE WACK!   Why are there middlemen in Medicaid – and what are they doing to our most vulnerable patients and physicians? How and why are private insurance intermediaries permitted to put profits ahead of patients? […]

Insured But Still Can’t Afford Care? The Underinsured Crisis

        THIS TIME ON CODE WACK!   Millions of Americans have health insurance, but still can’t afford to use it. So what happens when high deductibles and corporate profit pressures shape the care patients receive? To break it down, we spoke with […]

The Deadly Design of U.S. Health Care

        THIS TIME ON CODE WACK!   Why do Americans live about four years less, on average, than people in similar European countries, despite spending far more on health care? And why are so many dying from illnesses we already know how […]

Medicare Advantage Is Breaking America’s Promise to Seniors

        THIS TIME ON CODE WACK!   Privatized Medicare now covers more than half of older adults nationwide. But how do Medicare Advantage plans’ lower star ratings, narrow networks, and “paper benefits” hit seniors of color hardest-and why are hospitals dropping these […]

‘No real choice.’ How Medicare Advantage fails seniors

      THIS TIME ON CODE WACK!   How does Medicare Advantage – also known as privatized Medicare – fail seniors … especially seniors of color?  Why do many seniors find they actually have no other choice than an Advantage plan? What’s the consequence […]

Is racism in health care still a problem in 2026? Absolutely.

        THIS TIME ON CODE WACK!   This time on Code WACK! In celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we’re rebroadcasting this episode examining how desegregation shaped the experiences of Black patients in America – and what still hasn’t changed. […]