Ryan Ellis on Obamacare Subsidies, Healthcare Costs, and Accountability
Release Date: 01/20/2026
Cynthia Thurlow on the Future of Healthcare: Nurse Practitioners, System Pressures, and the Menopause Gut
Health Policy Podcast
Nurse practitioner and author Cynthia Thurlow discusses her transition from traditional allopathic medicine to a lifestyle-focused practice centered on perimenopause and menopause care. She explains the evolving role of nurse practitioners in the U.S. healthcare system, including their training, scope of practice, and ability to help fill gaps created by physician shortages. Thurlow highlights key systemic challenges shaping modern healthcare, including insurance-driven decision-making, declining reimbursement rates, consolidation of private practices, and the growing administrative...
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Emergency Physician Dr. Colleen Smith: Breaking up ‘Big Medicine’ alone won’t solve healthcare costs
Health Policy Podcast
Emergency physician Dr. Colleen Smith discusses how government regulations and market distortions have contributed to the rise of large, vertically integrated healthcare corporations. In the interview, she explains how policies such as certificate-of-need laws, Stark regulations, and the structure of employer-based insurance have limited competition and consumer choice in healthcare. Smith argues that simply breaking up large healthcare companies will not solve systemic problems unless policymakers also reform regulations, expand health savings options, and restore competition in the...
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Peter Mihalick Raises Concerns Over 340B Program Growth and Patient Impact
Health Policy Podcast
Peter Mihalick, health policy and advocacy director for the International Hearing Society and a former congressional staffer, discussed the federal 340B drug discount program on a recent episode of the Health Policy Podcast, highlighting concerns about its rapid expansion and lack of oversight. Mihalick explained that the program was originally designed to help safety-net providers serve low-income patients by allowing them to purchase outpatient drugs at steep discounts. However, he said the structure does not require hospitals or clinics to pass those savings directly to patients,...
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Nathan Benefield: Why the Affordable Care Act Isn’t Delivering Affordability
Health Policy Podcast
Nathan Benefield, Chief Policy Officer of the Commonwealth Foundation, joins the Health Policy Podcast to examine whether the Affordable Care Act has achieved its core promise of lowering health care costs. Sixteen years after its passage, Benefield argues that rising premiums, expanded subsidies, and increased government spending have failed to reduce costs for families. The conversation explores the impact of temporary COVID-era subsidy expansions, declining competition on insurance exchanges, and what Benefield describes as “perverse incentives” built into the subsidy structure. He...
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Susan Goldhaber on Fluoride, IQ Studies, and the Battle Between MAHA and the ADA
Health Policy Podcast
Susan Goldhaber, writer for the American Council on Science and Health and a former EPA researcher, joins the Health Policy Podcast to examine the renewed debate over fluoride in drinking water. With decades of experience studying fluoride standards, Goldhaber explains the history of fluoridation — from early 20th-century dental discoveries to its adoption as a major public health measure after World War II. The conversation explores why the EPA is conducting a new toxicity assessment, the controversy surrounding recent National Toxicology Program findings linking higher fluoride levels to...
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National Taxpayers Union’s Pete Sepp Warns of Medicare Insolvency and Pushes Bipartisan Reform to Cut Waste
Health Policy Podcast
On this episode of the Health Policy Podcast, Brian Hyde speaks with Pete Sepp, President of the National Taxpayers Union, about the accelerating financial crisis facing Medicare and other federal healthcare programs Sepp outlines how Medicare Part A is projected to become insolvent in 2033—just one year after Social Security’s trust fund is expected to fall short—triggering an automatic 11% cut in hospital insurance benefits unless Congress acts. He explains that healthcare spending now accounts for more than a quarter of federal expenditures and continues to grow, even after...
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Right to Try 2.0: Jennifer and Maya Reinhardt on Access, Hope, and the Fight for Life-Saving Treatments
Health Policy Podcast
On this episode of the Health Policy Podcast, Jennifer and Maya Reinhardt share their powerful story of battling cystic fibrosis and a life-threatening antibiotic-resistant infection. When traditional treatments failed and FDA barriers stood in the way, Jennifer fought to access bacteriophage therapy — an international treatment not approved in the United States at the time. The journey required extensive research, travel to Oregon, international coordination, and navigating federal red tape, all while Maya’s health rapidly declined. The treatment ultimately stabilized Maya long enough for...
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Joel White on Obamacare, Consolidation, and the Case for Market Reform
Health Policy Podcast
Joel White, president of the Council for Affordable Health Coverage, joins the Health Policy Podcast to discuss why health care costs continue to rise despite years of reform efforts. Drawing on his experience as former staff director of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee and co-author of the Health Savings Account law, White argues that market consolidation, regulatory complexity, and structural flaws in the Affordable Care Act have created localized monopolies that drive prices higher for American families. White outlines how vertically integrated insurers and providers shape...
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The Goldwater Institute’s Brian Norman on “Right to Try 2.0” and the Fight for Individualized Treatments
Health Policy Podcast
On this episode of the Health Policy Podcast, Brian Hyde speaks with Brian Norman, Director of State Affairs at the Goldwater Institute, about the push to expand “Right to Try” laws to include individualized and gene-based treatments. Norman explains how the original Right to Try movement, signed into federal law in 2018, allowed terminally ill patients to access investigational drugs that had passed Phase I FDA safety trials. Now, Goldwater is advancing “Right to Try 2.0,” aimed at creating a clearer regulatory pathway for patients with rare and ultra-rare diseases to access...
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Dr. Valerie Fuller: How a proposed federal student loan rule could impact availability of healthcare in the U.S.
Health Policy Podcast
Dr. Valerie Fuller, president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), joined the Health Policy Podcast to discuss a federal policy proposal that could have significant implications for the health care workforce and patient access to care across the country. AANP is the largest organization representing nurse practitioners in the United States. In January, the U.S. Department of Education released a proposed rule that would redefine which degree programs qualify as “professional” for the purposes of federal student loan limits. While this may sound technical, the decision...
info_outlineIn this episode of the Health Policy Podcast, Ryan Ellis, president of the Center for a Free Economy, discusses the expiration of COVID-era Affordable Care Act subsidies and why he believes they should not be extended.
Ellis explains how the ACA’s design mandates limit competition, drive up insurance premiums, and distort the healthcare market. He also examines the political incentives behind continued subsidy expansion, the role of insurers and hospital systems, and recent examples of fraud within federal assistance programs.
The conversation highlights the need for stronger oversight, work requirements, and long-term structural reforms to restore accountability and sustainability in U.S. healthcare policy.
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