Welcome to Prescription for Healthcare, a podcast collaboration between the WFHB Local News and Medicare for All Indiana, broadcasting the second Thursday of every month as part of the Local News at 5:15 PM.

This month we interview Erin Jeffries MD,  a physician who has dedicated her medical practice to women’s healthcare specializing in obstetrics and gynecology in Bloomington. She’s an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Indiana University School of Medicine.  Dr. Jeffries is also an active member of The Good Trouble Coalition. 

From the podcast:

“Maintaining labor and delivery services in OB deserts is a huge issue. I’m afraid we will not have the funding  needed to continue to remain open. And that will then overburden the places that do stay open like Bloomington, Indianapolis,  the large tertiary care centers, because I believe last time I checked, Bloomington already covers 11 surrounding counties.. I mean, wait times are already long. We just don’t have the number of providers and with cuts and legislation that have passed in Indiana, we’re not able to recruit providers. And so women are driving not only an hour and a half in labor, but an hour and a half each way to their appointments every week. We often see women who have had what we call scant prenatal care or inadequate care just because they don’t have transportation to an appointment an hour and a half away every week.”

The Good Trouble Coalition was previously featured in our March 2024 interview with Dr Gabe Bosslet and our August 2024 episode with Carrie Rouse MD.

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Follow Medicare for All Indiana @medicareforallindiana on Substack.  You can make comments and ask questions on Substack, as well as look at all our posts in one place.

Listen on Apple Podcasts Prescription for Healthcare-WFHB

Medicare for All Indiana is the Indiana Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program

“If Not Now, Tell Me When” by Carrie Newcomer is used with permission.

Welcome to Prescription for Healthcare, a podcast collaboration between the WFHB Local News and Medicare for All Indiana, broadcasting the second Thursday of every month as part of the Local News at 5:15 PM.

This month we interview Dr Ed Weisbart from St Louis, a frequent guest on the program. On his last few visits he has discussed Medicare, but today’s focus is on Medicaid and the hundreds of millions of dollars Indiana could save if we de-privatized our state Medicaid program, that is, eliminating the private companies that are middlemen. There is an opportunity to realize huge savings through avoided excessive administrative costs and profit, improve access to healthcare, make Hoosiers healthier, and salvage our embattled Medicaid program.

From the podcast: “For Indiana, we estimate anywhere from a 10 to 17% reduction in the Medicaid managed care budget. That means you could expect to save $200 to $340 million a year, and the savings start happening fairly quickly when a state decides to do this.  And by the way, as physicians, we are here to tell you with complete confidence that you will be improving the health of people on your Medicaid program.”

Read more about the PNHP study Save Indiana Medicaid by Removing the Middlemen (insurance companies)

Follow Medicare for All Indiana on our Facebook page.

Follow Medicare for All Indiana @medicareforallindiana on Substack.  You can make comments and ask questions on Substack, as well as look at all our posts in one place.

Listen on Apple Podcasts Prescription for Healthcare-WFHB

Medicare for All Indiana is the Indiana Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program

“If Not Now, Tell Me When” by Carrie Newcomer is used with permission.

Welcome to Prescription for Healthcare, a podcast collaboration between the WFHB Local News and Medicare for All Indiana, broadcasting the second Thursday of every month as part of the Local News at 5:15 PM.

This month we interview Tracey Hutchings-Goetz with Hoosier Action, a homegrown community organization rooted in small-town Southern Indiana, and led by their members. Hoosier Action has been a leader in advocating for the Indiana Medicaid program and supporting Hoosiers who need healthcare.

Tracey Hutchings-Goetz

From the podcast:  ”Medicaid members do actually have rights, and Medicaid members do have things that they can do if they are kicked off in error. Those things include reaching out to Indiana Legal Services or filing an appeal, or reaching out to their elected officials, both at the state and federal level to intervene on their behalf.”

Medicaid: Know Your Rights with Indiana Justice Project

Medicaid Appeals document

Follow Medicare for All Indiana on our Facebook page.

Follow Medicare for All Indiana @medicareforallindiana on Substack.  You can make comments and ask questions on Substack, as well as look at all our posts in one place.

Listen on Apple Podcasts Prescription for Healthcare-WFHB

Medicare for All Indiana is the Indiana Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program

“If Not Now, Tell Me When” by Carrie Newcomer is used with permission.

Welcome to Prescription for Healthcare, a podcast collaboration between the WFHB Local News and Medicare for All Indiana, broadcasting the second Thursday of every month as part of the Local News at 5:15 PM.

This month we interview Medicare for All Indiana co-founder Dr. Rob Stone to talk about the effects of the Medicaid cuts that have passed at the state and federal levels. This will impact Hoosiers throughout the state and is likely to cause the closure of many small town and rural hospitals.

From the podcast:

“It’s estimated that Medicaid cuts could lead to the closure of as many as 16 rural hospitals in Indiana, and Indiana hospitals have already begun reducing their services in anticipation of the federal cuts. Communities can expect layoffs and closures. Ball State economist Michael J. Hicks says that as a result of these cuts, hospitals will lose 15% or more of their annual operating budgets each year…

“These cuts are going increase costs for everybody. The insurance companies have already announced they are going to raise their rates for 2026. We’re all in this same boat together.

“Health insurance companies make a profit by denying care to sick people. I went to medical school to take care of sick people. It’s that simple.

“We have to figure out how to get all these middle people out of the middle and make it a simple transaction. We’ve already proven that Medicare works because Medicare has been taking care of the oldest, sickest, and most expensive of us for 60 years.

The question is whether either political party has the courage to fight for universal healthcare, or whether they will keep tinkering with a system designed to fail, and Americans will continue to die from rationed care and end up in medical bankruptcy. Or, will we choose the option that has been hiding in plain sight for 60 years, Medicare for All?”

Follow Medicare for All Indiana on our Facebook page.

Follow Medicare for All Indiana @medicareforallindiana on Substack.  You can make comments and ask questions on Substack, as well as look at all our posts in one place.

Listen on Apple Podcasts Prescription for Healthcare-WFHB

Medicare for All Indiana is the Indiana Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program

“If Not Now, Tell Me When” by Carrie Newcomer is used with permission.

Welcome to Prescription for Healthcare, a podcast collaboration between the WFHB Local News and Medicare for All Indiana, broadcasting the second Thursday of every month as part of the Local News at 5:15 PM.

This month we interview Wade Catt, an MD/PhD student at Indiana University School of Medicine. His PhD will be in Sociology and he has been looking at how the current threats to Medicaid could have disastrous consequences in Indiana.

Wade Catt MD/PhD candidate

From the podcast: “ When we are looking at rural hospitals closing because Medicaid is being cut, when we’re looking at the congressional budget office’s, most conservative estimation is multiple millions of people are going be losing healthcare coverage if this budget bill passes, we’re looking at a pretty dire situation in terms of what the healthcare landscape is going to be in the next few years.”

Follow Medicare for All Indiana on our Facebook page.

Follow Medicare for All Indiana @medicareforallindiana on Substack.  You can make comments and ask questions on Substack, as well as look at all our posts in one place.

Listen on Apple Podcasts Prescription for Healthcare-WFHB

Medicare for All Indiana is the Indiana Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program

“If Not Now, Tell Me When” by Carrie Newcomer is used with permission.

Welcome to Prescription for Healthcare, a podcast collaboration between the WFHB Local News and Medicare for All Indiana, broadcasting the second Thursday of every month as part of the Local News at 5:15 PM.

This month we interview Dr Diljeet Singh, the President of Physicians for a National Health Program, to talk about the recent reintroduction in Congress of the Medicare for All Bill in the House and the Senate.  There are reasons for hope! Dr Singh was our guest previously in January 2024.

Diljeet Singh MD

From the podcast:

 Karen Green Stone: The Medicare for All bill was reintroduced this week in both houses of Congress, The House of Representatives, HR 3069 and the Senate S 1506. Why is Medicare for all a symbol of hope?

Dr. Singh: The American people clearly, clearly, clearly are not happy with healthcare in in this country. It is not often that we have a clean, clear bill that will address so many of the shortcomings of our healthcare system in one bill, and the idea is that we can have universal coverage: Everybody gets all the healthcare they need without copays, without deductibles, without wasting money on bureaucracy and profit and shareholder dividends,  without worrying about conflicts of interest. This bill offers Americans all of those things. It does so without costing more than our current healthcare system. As a matter of fact, the plan is to add in dental, vision, hearing coverage because we can afford it if we’re not wasting money on bureaucracy and profit.

So to me, there’s nothing more hopeful than that.

Follow Medicare for All Indiana on our Facebook page.

Follow Medicare for All Indiana @medicareforallindiana on Substack.  You can make comments and ask questions on Substack, as well as look at all our posts in one place.

Listen on Apple Podcasts Prescription for Healthcare-WFHB

Medicare for All Indiana is the Indiana Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program

“If Not Now, Tell Me When” by Carrie Newcomer is used with permission.

Welcome to Prescription for Healthcare, a podcast collaboration between the WFHB Local News and Medicare for All Indiana, broadcasting the second Thursday of every month as part of the Local News at 5:15 PM.

This month we interview Dr. Ed Weisbart, a physician in St Louis who is  the board Secretary of Physicians for a National Health Program, PNHP, and Chair of the Missouri Chapter of PNHP.  He has been our guest several times before.

 ”When you ask me what we can do, we need to become aware of these attacks to Medicare, we need to fight them, we need to speak out, we need to organize around that. We need to be right there shoulder to shoulder with the people who are focused on the climate or focused on social security or focused on any of these other horrible crises. They’re all the same. They all have the root cause of democracy collapsing before us. If you wanted to pick one Uber issue, that’s not a heavy lift (Don’t mind my puns). If  you wanted to pick something like that, it’s rescue democracy. Fight to save democracy.”

The article cited early in the podcast:  Dr. Oz and the Plot Against Medicare: Medicare Advantage plans are killing seniors and bankrupting hospitals. Now the Trump administration is preparing to make them mandatory, ending Medicare as we know it.

Follow Medicare for All Indiana on our Facebook page and on Substack Medicare for All Indiana

Listen on Apple Podcasts Prescription for Healthcare-WFHB

Medicare for All Indiana is the Indiana Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program

“If Not Now, Tell Me When” by Carrie Newcomer is used with permission.

Welcome to Prescription for Healthcare, a podcast collaboration between the WFHB Local News and Medicare for All Indiana, broadcasting the second Thursday of every month as part of the Local News at 5:15 PM.

This month we interview Dr. Joey Ballard, a 2024 graduate of the Indiana University School of Medicine, now doing an internal medicine residency at the University of Illinois Chicago.  During medical school he was the president of Students for a National Health Program, SNaHP, Indianapolis,  the student affiliate of Physicians for a National Health program, PNHP. He was recently featured on the national podcast sponsored by Kaiser Family Foundation An Arm and a Leg on December 30th, 2024, where he talked about his ongoing advocacy, taking many resolutions to protect patients to the American Medical Association, the AMA, the largest physician association in the U S. Dr Ballard was previously featured on Prescription for Healthcare while he was still in medical school discussing  Students for a National Health Plan in May, 2022

Joey Ballard MD

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Listen on Apple Podcasts Prescription for Healthcare-WFHB

Medicare for All Indiana is the Indiana Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program

“If Not Now, Tell Me When” by Carrie Newcomer is used with permission.

Welcome to Prescription for Healthcare, a podcast collaboration between the WFHB Local News and Medicare for All Indiana, broadcasting the second Thursday of every month as part of the Local News at 5:15 PM.

This month is part 2 of our interview with Dr Walter Tsou, the past president of the American Public Health Association and former health commissioner of Philadelphia. He is a board advisor to Physicians for a National Health Program, and an expert on public health, healthcare reform and healthcare finance. He recently returned  from a medical educational tour of Cuba. Part 1, “What can Cuba teach us about healthcare delivery” was aired in January, 2025.

Dr. Walter Tsou (pronounced like Tsunami without the ‘nami’)

From the show:

“ There is this basic philosophical question about whether health care should be a public good, or should it be a market commodity? We can start off by asking ourselves, what is a public good? Public goods are things that we individually could not afford to do by ourselves, but could collectively. If we put our minds and our money together, we can actually achieve them. The biggest examples are things like national defense is a public good. Environmental protection is a public good. Our roads and bridges are public goods. Our hospitals and our public education system, our schools and firehouses and police stations are considered public goods because we all depend upon them. We couldn’t individually pay for them, but, if we collectively put our money together, we can achieve these things.”

Follow Medicare for All Indiana on our Facebook page.

Listen on Apple Podcasts Prescription for Healthcare-WFHB

Medicare for All Indiana is the Indiana Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program

“If Not Now, Tell Me When” by Carrie Newcomer is used with permission.

Welcome to Prescription for Healthcare, a podcast collaboration between the WFHB Local News and Medicare for All Indiana, broadcasting the second Thursday of every month as part of the Local News at 5:15 PM.

This month we interview Dr Walter Tsou,  the past president of the American Public Health Association and former health commissioner of Philadelphia. He is a board advisor to Physicians for a National Health Program, and an expert on public health, healthcare reform and healthcare finance. He recently returned  from a medical educational tour of Cuba.  This is part 1 of our interview and part 2 will be broadcast in February.

Dr. Walter Tsou (pronounced like Tsunami without the nami)

From the show:

“What we can learn from the Cuban healthcare delivery system and what we could do in the US with a single payer financing system could actually marry the best of both worlds.

“That is to say, if we had a healthcare delivery system based around primary care, where the doctors all knew their patients and could feel free to do home visits as part of their normal activities, along with  our more sophisticated  high tech hospitals and imaging and diagnostic services that we can do in this country, we really would have the best of both worlds. We’d have a very robust primary care program where we could easily refer people to higher level services if they need it. Then when they get better they go back to the community, to their homes, and they’re followed by their primary care doctors. That’s how a healthcare delivery system should work. And if all of it was funded through a single payer national health insurance program as part of how we care for our American people, I think we would have an incredible healthcare system.”

Follow Medicare for All Indiana on our Facebook page.

Listen on Apple Podcasts Prescription for Healthcare-WFHB

Medicare for All Indiana is the Indiana Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program

“If Not Now, Tell Me When” by Carrie Newcomer is used with permission.