Medicare for All

What with all the problems arising from Trump’s War on Health here at home, we sometimes forget that public health doesn’t stop at our border. It seems like Trump forgot this too when he handed over the decision about how we spend our foreign aid money to Elon Musk. Today we’re talking about the life and untimely death of USAID with someone who has had a chance to see up close and personal just what happens when America shuts down public health programs all around the world, all at once.

Plus, as always, we’ve got the latest healthcare news!

Sara Sullivan is the founder and CEO of Koko Consulting, a communications firm that specializes in promoting global development projects. Sara has a PhD and a Master’s Degree in English from Boston University, as well as a BA in English with a minor in Communication Studies from Westmont College. She is the Director of Communications of the Alliance for American Leadership, an organization advocating for the US to continue its investment in global aid by allocating 2 cents of every federal dollar spent to international aid. You can find her on social media as Average American or at her home in Botswana, a country with a universal healthcare system where you pay the equivalent of 35 American cents per doctor visit.

Don’t forget to like this episode and subscribe to The Medicare for All Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcast platform!

This show is a project of the Healthcare-NOW Education Fund! Chip in here to support our work!

A wise healthcare policy expert once articulated a sentiment many of us have felt when confronted with the failures of the American healthcare system: “S-O-S, please, someone help me. It’s not healthy for me to feel this. Y-O-U are making this hard. I can’t take it. See, it don’t feel right.” That healthcare policy expert was Rhianna in her prescient 2006 white paper “SOS,” and 20 years later, T-R-U-M-P is making getting the care you need even harder than ever before. That’s why on September 24, folks across the country participated in an “SOS for Health” national day of action to demand a stop to the administration’s war on the human body! Today we’re chatting with our friends at Public Citizen about “SOS for Health” and how they’re seizing the moment to hype up Medicare for All as our best hope for salvation!      

Plus, as always, we’ve got the latest healthcare news!

Our pals from Public Citizen are Medicare for All Organizer Brittany Shannahan and Healthcare Policy Expert Eagan Kemp!

Read more about the SOS for Health events here.

Are you interested in taking action for Medicare for All in your community but not sure where to start? Passing a municipal Medicare for All Resolution is a great way to get people where you live talking about Medicare for All and show legislators this is an issue their constituents care about. Find out more about the Medicare for All Resolutions campaign and connect with Brittany and the team here.

Don’t forget to like this episode and subscribe to The Medicare for All Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcast platform!

This show is a project of the Healthcare-NOW Education Fund! Chip in here to support our work!

Over the past month, we’ve been covering the story of Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, who recently came out in support of Medicare for All. This was a surprise for one big reason — 20 years ago, when folks were talking about the next big healthcare reform, he was the guy who suggested we privatize Medicare and Medicaid. Of course, that kind of change of heart never happens in a vacuum — for many years, Medicare for All activists have been working on the ground for years to make Oregon a hot spot for healthcare justice! In this episode, we talk with our friends from the Health Care for All Oregon coalition about how they’ve been spreading the word about national universal healthcare and advocating for Oregon to get the ball rolling with its own state-based plan.

Plus, we get to announce ANOTHER important update from Oregon: US Representative Janelle Bynum of Oregon’s 5th district has signed on to the national Medicare for All Act!

Long story short, if you want to get excited about the power of organizing, the popularity of healthcare justice, and the political potential of this particular moment, you’re going to want to join us on this trip to the Beaver State!

Collin Stackhouse is the Communications Coordinator for Health Care for All Oregon. He currently serves on the Community Engagement and Communications Committee of the State of Oregon’s Universal Health Plan Governance Board (aka The Com & Com Comm). He is also the host of The Health Care for All Podcast.

Simon Hutton is the Mid Valley Health Care Advocates Outreach Coordinator, the Organizational Director of One-Payer States, and a new Board Member Healthcare NOW!

Don’t forget to like this episode and subscribe to The Medicare for All Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcast platform!

This show is a project of the Healthcare-NOW Education Fund! Chip in here to support our work!

Trump has been really feeling himself lately when it comes to one of the key pillars in his “affordability agenda” – prescription drug prices. At a press conference recently, he informed us that prescription drug prices were at their lowest point in 60 years, saying “ We went from the highest price for pharmaceuticals to the lowest.” If you’re feeling a little skeptical that Trump is our new healthcare champion, you aren’t alone! Today we’ve brought on an expert to unpack what Trump says he did, what he actually did, and whether that’s going to do anything to make your life easier! 

Plus, as always, we’ve got the latest healthcare news!

Sarah Karlin-Smith is a research director for Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines Program. Her work explores how government policies and pharma industry lobbying influence how medicines are developed and approved, what diseases are prioritized by scientists, and who gets access to treatment and at what cost. She closely tracks and analyzes U.S. health policy impacting drug pricing, coverage, and reimbursement with the goal of advancing more equitable and fair pricing. She monitors activity in Congress, the courts, federal agencies such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid and the Federal Trade Commission, and state and local governments.

You can check out Public Citizen’s excellent article, “Four reasons Trump’s Drug Pricing Claims are Bogus” on their website!

Don’t forget to like this episode and subscribe to The Medicare for All Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcast platform!

This show is a project of the Healthcare-NOW Education Fund! Chip in here to support our work!

Listeners, the Medicare for All Podcast has reached an important milestone that all political content creators dream of – we got clipped in an attack ad against one of our favorite people! As we’ve been covering for the last few months, candidates all around the country are campaigning on Medicare for All, which means that Republicans and corporate Dems are freaking the f*** out and trying to figure out how to make universal healthcare look like a bad thing. Friend of the Pod and US Senate Candidate Abdul El Sayed has been getting his fair share of the heat for making Medicare for All the centerpiece of his agenda, so it’s no surprise that we ended up in his opponent’s latest campaign ad! We’ll take a look at this masterpiece of political propaganda, talk about why it feels like an ad FOR Medicare for All, and let you take a second listen to the interview featured in the ad, so you can decide for yourself whose side you’re on!  

Plus, as always, we’ve got the latest healthcare news!

Here’s that attack ad again in case you want to get into Mike Rogers’ comments:

Don’t forget to like this episode and subscribe to The Medicare for All Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcast platform!

This show is a project of the Healthcare-NOW Education Fund! Chip in here to support our work!

The national political media has been in a frenzy this week about friend-of-the-pod Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate primary victory in Michigan! Sayed made Medicare for All the centerpiece of his campaign, and at the polls, over 700,000 Michiganders got behind that vision of healthcare justice.

But there’s another Medicare for All story unfolding in Michigan  – the campaign to win a statewide universal healthcare system in Michigan as a stepping stone to national Medicare for All. Michigan State Representative Carrie Rheingans is leading the charge for universal healthcare in Michigan and organizing with state legislators across the country who are tired of waiting for the federal government to take action. Today she’ll tell us about her work in the Wolverine state and the 50-state strategy to introduce state-level Medicare for All bills in every state in the country.

Plus, as always, we’ve got the latest healthcare news!

Carrie Rheingans represents the 47th District of Michigan in the state legislature. She hosted a panel at Netroots with other state legislators to talk about their work introducing state-based Medicare for All legislation. You can watch it here.

You can connect with One Payer States, a coalition of organizations fighting for state-based Medicare for All here.

Don’t forget to like this episode and subscribe to The Medicare for All Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcast platform!

This show is a project of the Healthcare-NOW Education Fund! Chip in here to support our work!

When the U.S. Congress wants to get together, they don’t just check the shared Google calendar for a time when nobody’s using the House floor. Scheduling when or if a bill will ever get discussed or voted on is entirely up to the majority party. These days, that means that lawmakers outside the MAGAverse can’t do some pretty basic parts of their jobs like holding hearings. The Congressional Progressive Caucus has responded with a series of alternative “shadow” hearings on topics like healthcare – you know, life or death stuff that Republicans never seem to get around to talking about. Medicare for All got its turn in the shadows on July 22, with a hearing hosted by Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Debbie Dingell. Today we’re getting a full report-back on the hearing from Kara Sheehan, Political Director for National Nurses United.  

Plus, as always, we’ve got the latest healthcare news!

Kara Sheehan is the Political Director of National Nurses United, the largest nurses’ union in U.S. History!

You can see the full video of the Shadow Hearing here.

Don’t forget to like this episode and subscribe to The Medicare for All Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcast platform!

This show is a project of the Healthcare-NOW Education Fund! Chip in here to support our work!

Today we’re talking moral injury and how it’s impacting our doctors and the healthcare we get from them. What’s moral injury? Well, you may not have heard the term before, but trust us, if you’ve been watching The Pitt, you’ve already gotten a taste! Moral injury is the trauma that happens when someone knows the right thing to do but is prevented from doing it on a regular basis thanks to factors beyond their control. Researchers coined the term to describe combat veterans experiencing PTSD because they had been forced to do things in war that ran contrary to their sense of morality, but more and more, the folks who study this phenomenon are seeing it show up in unexpected groups of people — including the folks who provide your healthcare! In this episode we talk with Dr. Diljeet Singh of Physicians for a National Health Program about their new report on how working in an unjust healthcare systems is hurting doctors, and what that tells us about why we need Medicare for All!

Plus, as always, we’ve got the latest healthcare news!

In addition to being a badass lady, Dr. Diljeet Singh is a physician, an advocate, and the president of Physicians for a National Health Program, the national organization bringing together doctors to fight for change in our healthcare system! You can read the PNHP report on moral injury among doctors here!

Don’t forget to like this episode and subscribe to The Medicare for All Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcast platform!

This show is a project of the Healthcare-NOW Education Fund! Chip in here to support our work!

This episode, we’re live at the Texas Democratic Party Convention, where Gillian is battling heat stroke while talking with folks about why we need Medicare for All and how we’re using grassroots organizing to build the power to win it!

In the past, Medicare for All might have been a tough sell in Texas, but things are very different these days, as the Lone Star state turns from red to a distinctly bluish purple and Texas voters grow sick and tired of having some of the worst healthcare in the country. And yes, it is just that bad — Texas has the highest rate of uninsured people in the nation, as well as the highest rate of people who go without healthcare because of cost. The only upside is that this situation has given rise to a wave of energy to take on our healthcare system and make real change. Tables will be flipped!

In addition to updates from the Texas State Democratic convention, Gillian talks with Austin-based table-flipper and organizer Aija Nemer-Aanerud about the Big Insurance scam to exploit Medicaid for profit, how people across the country are fighting back, and what Texas has to teach us about the importance of defending public healthcare.

Aija Nemer-Aanerud might have been a guitar instructor at some point, and is definitely the Healthcare for All Campaign Director for People’s Action, where they’re organizing with groups across the country to get insurance companies out of our Medicaid system! If you think the tax dollars we pay into Medicaid should be paying for actual healthcare — not an extra yacht for an insurance company CEO — you can find out more about their work here.

Our friends at Physicians for a National Health Program have gotten together all the nitty gritty details of exactly how the Medicaid privatization scheme works, how much taxpayer money Big Insurance is sucking out of the system while denying care, and how the state you live in could easily eliminate a whole lot of waste, fraud, and abuse just by taking them out of the Medicaid business. We’re talking billions of dollars that could be saving the lives of the people we love. Read their “Removing the Middle-Man from Medicaid report here!

If it sounds too good to be true, Connecticut has the receipts — they’ve saved over 4 billion dollars since they gave private insurance companies the boot from their Medicaid system. We did a deep dive into that story in our Medicaid Privatization Smackdown episode, where we interviewed Sheldon Toubman, one of the architects of the campaign that made it happen.

Next time someone tells you that Medicare for All is “too radical” for folks in the red states, remember how the crowd reacted when Bernie Sanders called for Medicare for All in a room of 3,000 Texas democrats at the state convention!

Don’t forget to like this episode and subscribe to The Medicare for All Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcast platform!

This show is a project of the Healthcare-NOW Education Fund! Chip in here to support our work!

As we record this, the New York Knicks just might be poised to make history and win their first NBA championship since 1973 (Go Knicks!), but we’re here today to talk about a potential win that could be even bigger for New York than the Knicks taking it all… the passage of The New York Health Act! The New York Health Act, currently working its way through the NY state legislature, would guarantee high-quality, comprehensive healthcare to every single New Yorker, and – it turns out – save families, counties, cities, schools, and taxpayers billions of dollars! We’ve got two of the leaders of the Campaign for New York Health to bring us up to speed on the bill and tell us more about how they’re working to make universal healthcare a reality in the Empire State!

Our guests for this episode are Campaign for New York Health Executive Director Melanie D’Arrigo and Managing Director for Results for Development Dr. Cheryl Cashin. You can read the NY Health=NY Wealth report that details how passing the New York Health Act would guarantee healthcare for every New Yorker AND save billions of dollars for individuals, families, and entire counties, cities, and towns on their website.

Those new Medicaid work requirements are about to cause millions of Americans to lose their healthcare. This is a policy that was disastrous for Medicare in the 1990s and disastrous in all the states where it’s been tried for Medicaid so far. You have until July 30, 2026 to submit a public comment and let Chuck Grassley know how you feel about his ghoulish enthusiasm for making the lives of poor people shorter and more difficult.

Don’t forget to like this episode and subscribe to The Medicare for All Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcast platform!

This show is a project of the Healthcare-NOW Education Fund! Chip in here to support our work!