Health Care News Podcast

Now that Obamacare has been in effect for eight years, data is showing that Medicaid spending on low-income children has not kept pace with states that decided against expanding their programs to able-bodied adults.  Charles Blahous, the J. Fish and Lillian F. Smith Chair and senior research strategist at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, joins Health Care News to discuss this development. In addition to writing several books and publishing many studies on public policy issues, Blahous served as the deputy director of the National Economic Council under George W. Bush.On December 13, Blahous and Liam Sigaud published “The Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid Expansion is Shifting Resources away from Low-Income Children.” Host AnneMarie Schieber and Blahous discuss why spending growth for low-income children did not keep pace with growth in non-expansion states.  Why is it that children have been particularly impacted? What might have been a smarter approach? Are waivers the answer? Is expanding insura

The Republicans will be in control of the U.S. House starting next month. Brian Blasé and Drew Keyes, both health care policy and administration and legislative veterans now at the Paragon Health Institute, say Congress should focus on four key areas: more affordable health care, ending the COVID-19 health emergency, eliminating waste and abuse at Medicaid, and restoring trust in the CDC and NIH. 1. The Republicans in Congress will have a long list of priorities. Can something meaningful happen on health care policy?2. “Anti-inflationary” agenda: Many people think the solution is more government spending to offset the high costs of health care. Why is this boneheaded thinking?3. How will ending the COVID emergency help all Americans?4. Medicaid oversight… has abuse and waste gotten worse during the current administration and how does this impact all health care, private care, and care for the needy?5. Restoring trust in CDC and NIH…what can Congress really do here since this is under control of the current ad

The latest report from the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Veterans Affairs shows that more than one in ten staffers have yet to complete mandatory suicide prevention training. Sally Pipes, CEO, president, and health care policy fellow at the Pacific Research Institute discusses the report and why the VA needs to move to a voucher system quickly. Read the report: https://www.va.gov/oig/pubs/VAOIG-22-00813-253.pdf  Our veterans put their lives on the line to protect the freedoms America stands for. They deserve the best when it comes to health care. Sadly, this isn’t the case, especially when it comes to mental health and crisis care. Veterans get care through the Veterans Health Administration, a health system managed by the government.  It provides a glimpse of care under a socialized medicine model. On this episode, Pipes discusses: - The October report from the Inspector General and what it says about mental health care- The prevalence of suicide among vets- How VA care functions- Long

Reports have a knack for becoming public policy, and the latest report released by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Long COVID could be the next case in point. The report, more a marketing document than a medical report, recommends to “encourage or mandate policies and protocols regarding masking and social distancing in public spaces.” (emphasis added). Today’s guest is Rik Mehta, Pharm.D., J.D., biotech entrepreneur, and former consumer safety officer at the U.S Food and Drug Administration. Mehta, who knows first-hand how politics and public policy are intertwined as a former U.S. Senate candidate in New Jersey, discusses how seriously the public should take the report. He covers whether the CDC or schools will use the report as a basis to mandate masks, how the federal government can compel people to wear masks, why the Democrats backed off from masks in early 2022, the significance of the descriptions of “discrimination” mentioned in the report by people claiming to suffer from Long C

You may want to rethink checking that box making you an organ donor. Unlike tissue donation, organs often need to be harvested from a live person in order to be viable for a transplant. Heidi Klessig, M.D., retired anesthesiologist, pain management specialist, and co-founder of respectforhumanlife.com, highlights how hospitals have harvested organs from live patients for the last few years. This procedure makes the person brain dead and then resuscitates their heart to keep blood flowing to the organs. According to Klessig, this goes against the Uniform Definition of Death Act (UDODA).UDODA, passed in 1981, states that to declare someone legally dead, there must be irreversible cessation of cardiopulmonary function or irreversible cessation of all functions of the entire brain, including the brain stem. These determinations are to be made in accordance with accepted medical standards, but hospitals can never be 100 percent sure.  Klessig says there are many cases where people have been resuscitated and surviv

Many people think the field of eugenics disappeared after the Nazi’s were defeated in WWII. But eugenics, a controversial program to perfect the human race, exists in various forms in modern times. Robert Graboyes, economist, journalist, consultant at RFG Counterpoint, decided to write about the topic. Graboyes was also a panelist that covered the topic in a webinar hosted by The Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism.Eugenics has a long history going back way before the Nazi’s practiced it in World War Two. It really got its origins in Victorian England and it got some cover because it was associated with an emerging field at the time, statistics. Graboyes said it entered the U.S. before the Nazi’s came into power and practitioners at first, and in a much more gruesome way. Euthanasia was too controversial, so sterilization of was the weapon of choice and the practice continued well into the 20th century when it was discovered prisons were sterilizing people who were incarcerated. Graboyes also discusses

The FDA recently gave emergency use authorization (EUA) to the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine. Unlike the vaccines Americans received as a result of Operation Warp Speed, Novavax is not an mRNA vaccine. It was bypassed for EUA early in the pandemic because of a decision to put all resources into mRNA vaccines as it was thought this provided the best approach to get a vaccine out quickly. Our guest today, Raymond March, a research fellow for the Independent Institute and assistant professor of agribusiness and applied economics at North Dakota State University, says this was a costly mistake. In an op-ed, March explains why it took so long for the U.S. to get access to the Novavax vaccine. March discusses Novavax’s different technology, the history of protein-based vaccines, and the dangers in using a one-size-fits-all approach when dealing with a public health threat.   Novavax Authorization: https://ir.novavax.com/2022-10-19-U-S-FDA-Grants-Emergency-Use-Authorization-for-Novavax-COVID-19-Vaccine,-Adjuvanted-as-a-B

Poverty is no longer a requirement to qualify for long-term care under Medicaid. An entire industry has cropped up over the years instructing families on how to maximize Medicaid’s loose financial guidelines.  While families save a bundle of money by having the government now pay for this care, the system has had a negative impact on the long-term care market. Reimbursement rates under Medicaid do not cover the actual cost of care which impacts quality and supply.  Families no longer save for long term care knowing that Medicaid can come to the rescue.  Stephen Moses, president of the Center for Long-Term Care Reform, has studied long-term care for decades. He joins the show to discuss the first segment of his new report with the Paragon Institute, ”Long Term Care: The Problem.”Read the report: https://paragoninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/202208_Moses_LongTermCareTheProblem_FINAL_2.pdfSeventy percent of people who reach age 65 today will require a severe need for long-term care. Long-term care prov

President Biden told 60 Minutes in October that COVID-19 was essentially over. If that's true, why is he still lobbying Congress for billions of dollars in more COVID-19 relief? Biden also extended the emergency declaration another 90 days, further going against his stated position. Dr. Chad Savage, founder, Your Choice Direct Care, thinks the spending is not only unhealthy for the American economy, but “unnecessary, harmful, and blind to Americans’ real needs and problems.Savage says there is plenty of COVID-19 relief money unspent, just sitting on the sidelines. As a physician, Savage worries how more government spending will drive inflation further, increasing costs for working families. COVID is now becoming an excuse for Congress to continue its spending binge.Savage wrote about COVID-19 relief spending in an op-ed in Real Clear Health this summer.  He also discussed the emergency declaration extension, now scheduled to end in December. Savage covers opportunity costs involved when funds are directed to

Late this summer, CVS fired a nurse practitioner for refusing to prescribe ‘Plan B’ ‘Morning After’ pills at the “Minute Clinic” where she had worked for 2 ½ years. CVS had been aware of Paige Casey’s religious objections to prescribing the abortifacients, exempted her from doing so, and even gave her favorable job reviews. In August, CVS changed its mind and told Casey she would no longer be given an exemption. Casey is suing CVS and is being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom.Increasingly, health care professionals are being reprimanded, attacked and even fired for refusing to perform procedures that violate their religious convictions. It is not clear why CVS changed its position this summer regarding Casey. Interestingly, the MinuteClinic where Casey worked is located in Virginia where there are conscience protections in the law. CVS has stated it did not believe the “Morning After” bills are abortifacients but contraception. Kevin Theriot, an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom, discu

Increasingly, the private component of Medicare, Medicare Advantage (MA), is coming under attack. The latest salvo was a front-page article on October 8, 2022 in the New York Times, titled “The Cash Monster Was Insatiable – How Insurers Exploited Medicare for Billions.” The article claims “most large insurers in the program have been accused in court of fraud.” Today’s guest, John C. Goodman, points out that the “fraud” insurers are accused of is not the typical fraud seen in Sixty Minutes exposes in which the perpetrators are sent to prison. Rather, the “fraud” alleged often involves the risk payments MA plans receive for taking care of sicker enrollees. Goodman says MA attacks are no accident. There is a huge force against privatization in Medicare by the government, politicians and the corporate media. Goodman discusses why MA is the better alternative for both enrollee and taxpayers.On his health care blog, Goodman posted a rebuttal to the NY Times article on the day it was published. In the blog post, “A

Can we trust doctors today to act in our best interest? Joel Hirschhorn, editor of the Pandemic Blunder Newsletter and author of Pandemic Blunder, returns to the podcast to discuss how the corporate takeover of healthcare is impacting patient care. This reached a pinnacle during the pandemic when doctors pushed investigational vaccines, discredited alternative therapies, and supported measures such as masks, lockdowns, and mandates which have done little to stop COVID-19. Hirschhorn reminds listeners that COVID is NOT over. People are still dying from the virus, and some continue to have side effects. Hirschhorn presents a list of questions patients should ask doctors next time the issue of COVID is discussed.Hirschhorn’s list of questions: https://joelshirschhorn.substack.com/p/most-physicians-are-ignorant-cowards?utm_source=emailAbout today’s guest: Joel Hirschhorn is the editor of the Pandemic Blunder Newsletter, and author of the book Pandemic Blunder. He has been working tirelessly on the issue of the pa

On September 14, Sen. Rand Paul grilled Dr. Anthony Fauci on royalty payments government scientists receive from private third-party entities. The non-profit watchdog,  Open the Books has been relentlessly investigating these private royalty payments because the public has been drastically impacted by public health guidance.  Adam Andrezejewski, CEO and founder of Open the Books, says it is important to understand how government health agencies make their decisions when decision makers have personal wealth gains on the line. He believes the payments over the past ten years come close to $400 million.  Fauci announced he is retiring from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in December, but Andrezejewski believes he will still have much influence in the loop between regulators and pharma.Open the Books has been investigating Fauci and the NIH regarding his salary and retirement package as well as the hundreds of media appearances during the pandemic. Now the group, through FOIA is trying to get the names, a

SB 107 would allow California to become a “sanctuary state” for a parent and minor to pursue gender altering surgery and care against the wishes of another parent.  AB 2098 redefines the meaning of “unprofessional conduct” to now included the dissemination of COVID-19 misinformation or disinformation.  Physicians and Surgeons could potentially lose their license if found to be in violation. Singleton discusses the ramifications of these bills and how variations could spread to other states.Singleton and Schieber discuss: 1.  Who will determine what  COVID  “misinformation” is 2.  The possibility that a  physician could lose their medical license over COVID misinformation? 3. Will this chase doctors out of state? 4. Could Anthony Fauci be in violation given his flipflopping on COVID -19? 5.  What could happen if SB 107 is signed into law? 6. Will the constitutionality of this law likely be challenged in court? 7. What would happen if a minor runs away to CA and seek emancipation?  8.  How these policies could

Americans have a right to complain that some prescription drugs are unaffordable. But the answer is not to have the government (taxpayers) pick up more of the tab. A better solution is to get costly regulatory obstacles out of the way.  Gregg Girvan, a scholar at The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP), says it is a myth that brand name drugs have to be excessively priced to guarantee future research and development.  He also says regulatory obstacles are standing in the way of making biosimilars, a cheaper alternative to biologic drugs, more available.  Europe outpaces the U.S. in allowing biosimilars to be more widely available.  All Americans should be pushing for reform before health care spending pushes out other spending even more than it does today.Ninety percent of all prescription drugs sold are generic.  Generic drugs are replicas of small molecule drugs (the drugs commonly taken in tablet form) and are cheap and affordable.  They have been revolutionary in driving down drug spendi

On August 17, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recently stated that the CDC needs a complete overhaul. How serious is her call? As director, can she fix all that is wrong with the agency? Or, is this something Congress needs to address?Our guest for today’s episode of Health Care News is Dr. Marilyn Singleton. Dr. Singleton previously served as president of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. She’s also written and spoken extensively on how the CDC and other government health agencies politicized COVID-19. She says that at the very least, it’s time for an independent investigation of the CDC.During an interview, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky made comments on the state of the agency. Dr. Walensky said the CDC is facing three problems: unclear communication, a fragmented public health system, and action reactively, not proactively.Dr. Walensky made these comments as the agency is facing increasing criticism over its handling of COVID-19. Th

Attorney Doug Seaton joins Health Care News managing editor Anne Schieber to discuss a $10.3 million settlement involving hospital employees who were forced to take Covid vaccines against their wishes.  

Congressional Democrats are pushing through a plan that shift $288 billion away from Medicare drug spending and into Obamacare plans and Green New Deal ventures. Extended Obamacare plans from the pandemic expire around the midterm elections. Premiums will likely skyrocket at a critical time: the midterm elections.The plan will authorize the federal government, through Medicare Part D and B spending, to hit drug makers with a 95 percent tax on total sales if they fail to lower drug prices to the satisfaction of federal regulators. One economic study found drug research and development fell by 18.5 percent. This tax will also lead to supply shortages of pharmaceuticals. Dems are selling the plan as “drug negotiation,” but Phil Kerpen, president of American Commitment, tells AnneMarie Schieber that it’s a classic mob-style ‘offer you can’t refuse.’The drug price control measure is being salvaged from the Build Back Better bill that collapsed in Congress a few months ago. Given the upcoming mid-term election, it

Medicare Advantage (MA) is under attack after a report by the Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General.  John Goodman, a health care economist, president of the Goodman Institute for Public Policy Research, and co-publisher of Health Care News, is a champion of MA plans. Goodman says the report looks at a tiny fraction of enrollees and fails to consider the overall popularity of MA.  Not only can MA save Medicare enrollees a significant amount of money; they are the closest thing to doing what all health care plans should do: cover the essentials when people really need the coverage, when they get sick. Don’t raise prices and overcover individuals.  MA plans are the only plans that seek out enrollees with particular health risks and are incentivized to provide care that matters.Medicare Advantage plans have been around for a while. They can save seniors money because they are managed, inclusive plans and spare them the need to buy something called Medigap insurance. Medigap insurance covers thin

Obamacare was supposed to be affordable, but on April 11, the White House announced new actions to “lessen the burden of medical debt and increase consumer protection.”  Why are consumers being flanked with extra medical bills if the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was doing its job?  Devon Herrick, a health care economist, discusses Obamacare’s narrow networks and high deductibles as being a big part of the problem and how a free market in health could solve the problem of “medical debt.”This is the fact sheet the White House released describing the need for medical debt relief and the actions it plans to take: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/04/11/fact-sheet-the-biden-administration-announces-new-actions-to-lessen-the-burden-of-medical-debt-and-increase-consumer-protection Herrick discusses the following:1.  Wasn’t medical debt what the ACA was designed to prevent? 2.  Fact sheet says the feds pay $1.5 trillion towards health care, why are people getting bills at all? 3. Do you h