Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 18
Date: 6/26/2026
Title:  Indiana health prices go public, military flu outbreaks, and Title X on the chopping block

NEXT EPISODE WILL BE JULY 17

0:00- Intro

2:05- A new website shows you health care service prices at health care institutions in Indiana.

4:08- 40% of Hoosiers can't afford the cost of living

5:25- FDA VRBPAC approves the mRNA flu vaccine that the previous FDA vaccine czar refused to review.

8:07- Military removes a flu vaccine requirement- vaccine coverage goes from nearly 100% to 40%- huge outbreak at an air force base in Texas.  Stupid decisions yield predictably stupid results.

9:56- RFK, Jr pissed that a shitty vaccine study has been retracted

12:25- Ebola outbreak continues

13:09- 770,000 kids from 12 states no longer receiving SNAP (food) benefits

14:14- Rural health grant rules being changed mid-stream

15:43- Title X program lawsuit challenges changes to the Title X program (this is a good lawsuit)

17:18- Gabe reminds us that moms.gov exists, which is a terrible website

17:58- States losing a lot of money due to abortion restrictions- and Indiana is one of the biggest losers

19:24- Tracey teaches us all about the federal embryo adoption program, and recent problematic changes around the language of that program

21:53- Go team USA!!!!

Editing assisstance this week by Elijah Bosslet

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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 17
Date: 6/19/2026
Title:  Indiana kids lose Medicaid, mifepristone panic, and Sen. Bohacek on medical marijuana

0:00- Intro

2:25- 20% less Indiana children enrolled in Indiana Medicaid today compared to a year ago

4:32- Fairbanks School of Public Health joins with Indiana Department of Health to form an academic health department partnership (yay!)

6:29- Indiana tries to reign in healthcare costs by limiting hospital charges to employer based programs starting July 1

7:57- Andre Carson files bill to make SunBucks a default opt-in program (likely in response to Indiana opting out the last 2 years for reasons that seem nefarious)

10:27- MAHA wants people to eat vegetable but the Department of Agriculture is cutting funding for fresh foods in their programs

11:47- Federal House Budget would cut two extremely successful health outcomes and implementation science programs

13:56- Indiana's attorney general wants to make sure the EPA is monitoring mifepristone in drinking water. Math tells us you would have to drink 233 lifetimes of water in a very short time to achieve 1/1000th of the therapeutic serum level

17:33- FDA mifepristone safety investigation starting in earnest

18:54- Interview with State Senator Mike Bohacek about his bill to legalize medical marijuana in Indiana

32:05- Join Good Trouble for a social meetup Tuesday June 23 at Half Liter in Broad ripple at 6 pm! And watch the US beat Australia in the World Cup!

32:56- Wrap up

Editing assistance on this week's episode provided by Elijah Bosslet

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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 16
Date: 6/5/2026
Title:  "Nuclear family month" executive order 🙄, more vaccine policy chaos, and the political takeover of NIH grants

0:00- Intro

1:57- Infant mortality rate for Indiana steady but remains higher than the national rate

3:11- Indiana sues federal government over a proposed change to marijuana policy

5:10- June declared "nuclear family month" by Governor Braun, despite the fact that families look a lot of different ways, and only 18% of Hoosier households meet this definition

7:02- Many more tick bites this year so check yourself 

7:49- FSSA halts new ABA provider enrollment

8:33- HHS ACIP charter proposal pulled and ACIP is in shambles

10:30- New federal executive order sets the stage for major vaccine schedule changes

12:14- FDA report: no child deaths associated with COVID vaccine

13:03- Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo is the 3rd largest on record (not something to worry about, but not a good situation and any Americans who get ebola will not be treated in the United States (breaking from previous policy)

16:05- National smoking rate down to 9%!

17:13- Proposed rule change will make devastating changes to research grants in the United States (read the statement by Academy Health)

22:37- Go to a pride celebration and join GTC for the annual meeting on Monday June 8th on zoom!

24:23- Wrap up

Editing assistance on this episode by Elijah Bosslet

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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 15
Date: 5/22/2026
Title:  USPSTF turmoil, moms.gov propaganda, and modernizing Indiana's HIV laws

0:00- Intro

1:33- Physician in charge of the Hantavirus oubreak has no public health experience but does have a podcast called "The Erection Connection"

2:30- United States Preventative Services Task Force quietly being dismantled

4:13- Marty Makary resigns as head of FDA- we now have no CDC director, no FDA director, no surgeon general

5:42- Nicole Saphier, nominee for Surgeon General, is a grifter

7:10- NIH doesn't have enough grant managers to pay out all the grants that have been awarded

8:34- Federal government had been holding up immigration visas for doctors but it looks like they are going back on that

9:38- Updates in abortion

12:08- Moms.gov is a really shitty website

14:36- New FSSA plan to attempt to reign in Indian Healthcare costs is a novel attempt to acheive this

18:30- Thoughts about legalizing marijuana in Indiana may be changing

19:57- Interview with Dr. Carrie Foote about the HIV Modernization Movement to reform scientifically outdated laws that criminalize Hoosiers living with HIV. 

35:00- Join Good Trouble for its annual meeting (on Zoom) on June 8!

35:53- Wrap up

This episode was edited by Elijah Bosslet.

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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 14
Date: 5/8/2026
Title:  RFK doesn't want you using antidepressants, armed forces no longer require flu vaccine, and Tracey teaches us all about mifepristone

0:00- Intro

1:33- GTC is looking for an executive director!  More info here

2:11- Casey Means is out for Surgeon General, Nicole Saphier is in

3:20- 988 Hotline for LGBTQ+ youth in crisis, is being reinstated and a JAMA paper shows that it has saved a lot of lives

4:25- RFK, Jr wants people to stop using antidepressants

 5:58- Indiana Medicaid seeking return of $200 million of payments for attendant care providers

7:40- 400 new FSSA workers just to check eligibility with the new rules (holy crap)

9:23- 340B program changes will not apply to FQHC clinics (good news)

10:17- Audit of Marion County Office of Public Health and Safety not good

11:12- Indiana drops involvement in lawsuit regarding section 504 of Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (which is good) but for reasons that aren't great

12:04- Pentagon ends requirement for active duty military to be immunized against flu (which is bad policy)

13:37- COVID vaccine paper that HHS would not publish has been leaked and you can read it here

14:26- Tracey's primer on medication abortion and shenanigans by the 5th circuit court of appeals

 19:17- Ban on medicaid billing for Planned Parenthood up for grabs in Congress

20:09- Happy National Nurses Week!  And get to know the candidates in your district who won their primaries

21:02- Wrap up

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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 13
Date: 4/24/2026
Title:  The PBM black box, Marion County’s dirty air, and the CDC’s vaccine slow-walk

0:00- Intro

2:00- The Good Trouble Coalition is hiring an executive director- look out for an email from GTC!

2:40- Governor Braun moves $200 million to the childcare development fund to provide more vouchers for daycare access

4:19- CDC delays release of MMWR report outlining COVID vaccine efficacy

5:24- Erica Schwartz nominated to run CDC- most reliable people think she is a good choice

6:33- ACIP charter revised by RFK, Jr to allow his "experts" to participate

8:15- RFK, Jr walks back his antivaccine stance to congress

9:54- Trump Administration dropped the court fight over major changes to NIH funding rates

11:15- American Lung Association's State of the Air report demonstrates Marion County failed all measures. Not good.

12:29- Indiana Supreme Court will hear the abortion ban challenge (and skip the appellate court)

13:15- Louisiana case challenging mifepristone now at the 5th circuit court of appeals and plaintiffs have asked for an injunction on its use without face to face visit

14:42- EPA releases list of Human Health Benchmarks for Pharmaceuticals that includes abortion and oral contraceptive medications

17:43- Interview with Veronica Vernon, Pharmacist and Butler Professor, about Pharmacy Benefit Managers and what in the heck they do

35:15- VOTE IN THE PRIMARY

36:06- Wrap up

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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 12
Date: 4/10/2026
Title:  SCOTUS sparks conversion therapy controversy, ideology drives Title X changes, and Indiana’s $207M plan for rural health

0:00- Intro

1:15 - Join the Good Trouble Coalition Board

2:01- SCOTUS rules that Colorado cannot ban conversion therapy, but Gabe has complicated thoughts about this ruling

12:01- Dolly Parton's Imagination Library fully funded in all 92 Indiana counties

12:40- Tracey explains to all of us what Title X is and why new funding through Title X is bad

15:58- Match day just passed- we explain what that is and how match results demonstrate the mess that is payment incentives in medicine

21:05- Interview with Cara Veale, the CEO of the Indiana Rural Health Association about the Rural Health Transformation Grant

37:17- It is time to vote in the primary- between now and May 5th. Find your ballot and an early voting site at https://indianavoters.in.gov/

38:38- Wrap up

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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 11
Date: 3/27/2026
Title:  Good news on opioid deaths, judge calls ACIP incompetent, and a historical look at tobacco use in Indiana

0:00- Intro

1:21- Good Trouble call for new board members

3:12 Opioid deaths down in Indiana (and all states)- good news!

4:09 Estimates suggest medicaid changes could drop up to 100,000 Hoosiers

5:04 Planned Parenthood to close two Indianapolis sites

6:01 Indiana lags in primary and preventative care

8:07 New report highlights likely fraud in autism therapy in Indiana (this story pissed Tracey off)

11:51 Administration misses deadline to nominate a new CDC director

12:54 Casey Means does not appear to have the votes to get out of committee for her Surgeon General nomination

13:26 Dramatic week for ACIP- Robert Malone picked up his ball and went home

16:11 Interview with Miranda Spitznagle, director of the Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation

37:24 Little things/good vibes

38:21 Wrap up

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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 10
Date: 3/13/2026
Title:  Indiana’s 340B safety net under attack, syringe services survive without a signature, and RFK Jr's nutrition theater

00:00- Intro

2:01- SB 91 becomes a law without the signature of Governor Braun

5:13- Dolly Parton's Imagination Library almost funded despite no state government funds

6:50- Permanent injunction on the Indiana Abortion ban based on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (but it's not over

9:04- Vinay Prasad resigns from the FDA again

11:05- Another study debunks Tylenol-autism, FDA reverses guidance on leucovorin for autism, and new independent autism advisory panel

13:25- States passing laws protecting clinicians from lawsuits around vaccine confusion

14:34- HHS announces a nutrition education initiative for medical schools, includes Purdue University in the list of 40 schools that have signed on besides the fact that Purdue doesn't have a medical school

16:39- An interview with Alan Witchey, CEO of the Damien Center, about the importance of the 340B drug pricing program and its role in the care of vulnerable patients in Indiana- and a HUGE risk to that program as the result of a proposed regulation change by Indiana FSSA

You should use this script to send an email comment on this proposed change before March 27!

37:58- Wrap up

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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 9
Date: 3/6/2026
Title:  End of session wrap-up and fewer medical residents want to come to Indiana

00:00- Intro

1:21- Good Trouble will have a call for new board members at the end of this month so look out in your email

1:49 GTC will also be hiring an executive director, so be looking for calls for that if it is something that might interest you

2:19- Donate to Good Trouble to help support this work!

3:24- Tracey makes her minor children work

4:12- Study in JAMA demonstrated that the 104 Indiana medical residency programs see 1,500 less applicants because of the abortion ban

8:01- More parents refusing vitamin K shots at birth (and why this is a terrible idea)

10:06- CDC report: number of women receiving prenatal care decreasing in Indiana

11:10- Ryan White HIV program reductions will lead to significant increases in HIV infections (and a primer on Ryan White)

14:53- Jerome Adams' mic drop tweet about the nomination of Casey Means for Surgeon General

15:50- Overview of legislative session bills filed (741) and passed (163)

17:54- Big win bills: Gabe- SB 91 (syringe exchange); Tracey- the death of SB 236 (abortion)

Big loss bills: Gabe- SB 285 (criminalizing homelessness); Tracey- SB1 (bad medicaid and SNAP changes)

21:45- Check your registration at the Indiana voter portal and watch motorsports

22:42- Wrap up

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