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“It’s time for us to take a really close look at what our healthcare policy says about the priorities of our members of Congress. Right now it looks like the lobbying and the political donations from big health insurance companies unfortunately outweigh the desires of the people to have a better healthcare system.” —Rachel Madley
We Can Save Billions on
Health Care – Why Won’t
Congress Do It?
Featuring Rachel Madley
Director, Center for Health & Democracy
Find us on Apple podcasts, our website or your favorite podcast platform.
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Breaking News in Healthcare Reform
“…after 21 calls with the insurer … he was found dead in his apartment.”
He Died Without Getting Mental Health Care He Sought. A New Lawsuit Says His Insurer’s Ghost Network Is to Blame.
ProPublica | Max Blau | June 2, 2025
“Johnson told NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press’ that … he’s ‘not buying’ the argument that the work requirements … are too ‘cumbersome.’”
Speaker Mike Johnson Says Some Medicaid Recipients Will ‘Choose’ Whether to Lose Health Care Under House Spending Bill
NBC News | Alexandra Marquez | June 1, 2025
“…health policy researchers and advocates point to New Hampshire and Arkansas, where state-imposed work requirements failed in recent years. Their policies didn’t actually boost employment; they did, however, leave thousands of eligible people without health insurance within a matter of months.”
Medicaid Work Rules Could Leave a Million Californians With No Health Insurance
CalMatters | Ana B. Ibarra | May 30, 2025
“Newsom agreed to raise the [assets] limit to $130,000 per person in 2022. Then in 2024, the limit was erased completely. Now Newsom wants to bring back the original limit of $2,000, an amount that was set in 1989.”
‘I’m Really Scared’: Elderly and Disabled Californians with More Than $2,000 Could Lose Medi-Cal
CalMatters | Kristen Hwang | May 29, 2025
“Without congressional intervention, Medicare payments would be reduced by 4%, resulting in a $500 billion cut over eight years, beginning in 2026.”
4 Changes to Medicare in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
MSN | Donna LeValley, Kiplinger’s Consumer News Service | May 28, 2025
“This decision could make it significantly harder for millions of Americans to access vaccines they want for themselves and their families….”
Dropping COVID Shots from Vax Schedule Causes Uproar
Axios | Adriel Bettelheim, Tina Reed | May 28, 2025
“The truth is that blowing a $700 billion hole in health spending on Medicaid services will degrade health system infrastructure and reduce the quality of care for all of us.”
How Medicaid Cuts Will Hurt Health Care for Everyone
Center for Economic and Policy Research | Eileen Appelbaum | May 27, 2025
“Adding to already-growing Medicare Advantage enrollment by making it the default option would accelerate the insolvency of the Medicare Part A Hospital Insurance Trust Fund and continue to raise Part B premiums for beneficiaries.”
Defaulting Into Medicare Advantage: What It Could Mean for Medicare and Its Beneficiaries
Health Affairs | Gretchen Jacobson, David Blumenthal | May 27, 2025
“Massive insurers such as UnitedHealth Group, the [American Hospital Association] wrote, are responsible for ‘the single greatest competition problems in the healthcare markets today.’”
Hospital Lobby Steers DOJ, FTC’s Regulatory Review Toward Payers’ Vertical Integration
Fierce Healthcare | Dave Muoio | May 27, 2025
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Shining a light on ongoing inequities in health care
and the impact they have on vulnerable individuals and communities.
Our podcast Code WACK! brings to life the failures of America’s healthcare system with stories, commentary and analysis.
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