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Benjamin Day and Gillian Mason of Healthcare-NOW break down everything you need to know about the social movement to make healthcare a right in the United States. Welcome to Medicare for All!

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Episodes

American Hospitals – Healthcare Villains?

By Benjamin Day | May 19, 2023

Virtually all Americans know that our healthcare system is broken and that it’s working against us. But who is the villain in this story? Who is responsible for maintaining this healthcare system, and using it to profit off of patients? If we had to round up the usual suspects in a lineup, we’d probably end…

Private Equity’s Path of Destruction in Health Care

By Geri Katz | May 1, 2023

If you missed our annual Single Payer Strategy Conference, it’s your lucky day. Today we share a conference presentation all about the impact of Private Equity on healthcare (spoiler alert: it’s not good.) Our guests are Eagan Kemp, Health Care Policy Advocate at Public Citizen; Rachel Madley, Health Policy Advisor to Medicare for All Act…

50 Shades of “No”: How to Respond to Your Legislator’s Excuses and Evasions

By Geri Katz | April 10, 2023

When kids turn two or three years old, they learn to tell what is called a “primary lie,” which is lying without much sophistication or awareness of how the listener will perceive the lie (hint: you completely failed to fool your parents). But when we turn four, we learn to tell “secondary lies,” which take…

Would You Rather: the Healthcare Edition

By Geri Katz | March 24, 2023

Back in 2008, the TV show Breaking Bad asked a question that is still on a lot of Americans’ minds: How far would you go to pay for medical care? In Breaking Bad, the main character ends up building a meth empire to pay for his cancer treatment, which is a solution we don’t necessarily…

10 Years of M4A

By Gillian Mason | March 16, 2023

2013 was a big year — we had just survived 2012 (the year the Mayans thought the world was going to end), we were all doing the Harlem Shake on Vine, and — most importantly — our regular co-host Ben Day became the Executive Director of Healthcare NOW, the nation’s leading Medicare for All advocacy…

This Little Pandemic Went to Market

By Geri Katz | February 28, 2023

Starting on May 11, President Biden is ENDING the emergency COVID-19 regulations that have been in place since the start of the pandemic in January 2020. These regulations created (almost) a Medicare for All-type public funding system for vaccines, testing, and COVID-related care. While the pandemic itself is still raging, the end of the official…

Give Me Healthcare or Give Me Debt!

By Geri Katz | February 21, 2023

Our guest today is Rebecca Wood. Rebecca lived all over Virginia before her relocation to Massachusetts. Rebecca worked with many organizations and offices on Capitol Hill. Her healthcare work includes rallies, protests, press conferences, and conventions. Most notable, she told her and daughter Charlie’s story at the introduction of Senator Sanders’ Medicare For All Act…

Digital Healthcare Dystopia

By Geri Katz | February 3, 2023

Like many of our episodes, this topic drives our hosts to use some salty language. Use your best judgment if you’re listening near someone with tender ears. Hike up your trousers and throw on some long socks. We’re getting into the weeds on this one. Ben and Gillian discuss the digitization of our healthcare system…

Bringing the Fight to 2023

By Geri Katz | January 19, 2023

It’s a new year, which means everyone is coming out of the woodwork to make predictions about what’s in store for 2023. In this episode, we’re going to be making reckless, unverifiable claims about the future of the movement for healthcare justice, the public health crisis in this country, the political landscape, and yes –…

Network So Small!

By Benjamin Day | December 18, 2022

Listeners, how many times has this happened to you? You find a great doctor, you make an appointment, and you think everything is fine… until you get the dreaded call from the insurance company that your sweet new doc is “Out of Network.” Well, you aren’t alone – just in the past few months, limited…

Midterms: Chicken Soup for the Electoral Soul

By Geri Katz | November 24, 2022

The 2022 midterm elections are MOSTLY in the books – thank again Georgia, for the endless run-offs that keep on giving, every two years it seems like. You’ve heard the national narrative: Democrats did surprisingly well, given how parties in power usually take big losses during the mid-terms, and particularly when Biden has such low…

In Sickness and in Health Insurance

By Geri Katz | November 11, 2022

Today we’re talking about the relationship between taking your vows and taking your medicine. In 2020, more than a quarter of folks who got married said they took the plunge because one of the partners involved needed health insurance, and it seems like some couples are staying together for the insurance as well. In this…

Howdy Y’all, it’s the TEXAS EPISODE

By Geri Katz | October 30, 2022

Everything is bigger in Texas, including medical bills and the uninsured population. The Lone Star state has the second-largest population in the country, and is among the fastest-growing as well, but all those people are stuck with THE worst healthcare system and very poor health outcomes as well. The uninsured rate is more than twice…

More like Medicare Disadvantage, AMIRITE? 

By Geri Katz | October 14, 2022

Today we’re tackling Medicare Advantage, which is the option Medicare enrollees have to use a private insurance company to administer their Medicare benefits instead of the traditional public Medicare program. Almost HALF of all Medicare beneficiaries are now enrolled in Advantage plans, which represents a historic level of privatization of the almost 60-year program. Just…

Alexa, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!

By Benjamin Day | October 2, 2022

In this episode, we unpack Amazon’s efforts to “disrupt U.S. healthcare” (apologies for the new age business lingo!). And after their spectacular failure to disrupt anything, we talk about Amazon’s pivot from “disrupting” the healthcare industry to joining it. About a month ago, Amazon purchased One Medical, an in-person and virtual subscription-based healthcare service (the…

Peticare for All!

By Benjamin Day | September 15, 2022

Any regular listeners of the podcast won’t be surprised to hear that Gen Xers and Millennials are going into debt for healthcare… but what if we told you that this time it’s for their pets! More Americans are spending more money on healthcare for their beloved pets, which means insurance companies are getting in on…

Political Malpractice & the Rise of Dr. Oz

By Geri Katz | September 2, 2022

Today we’re checking in on the ongoing Pennsylvania Senate race, where Medicare for All–along with crudites, poop tweets, hydroxychloroquine, and Turkish nationalism–has become a hot-button issue. This race is beyond interesting, shading into the bizarre! A lot is at stake, since control over the Senate is going to be hotly contested this midterm election, and…

The Hope Reduction Act

By Benjamin Day | August 20, 2022

Ben discusses the “Inflation Reduction Act,” which was signed into law by President Biden this past week! In last-minute negotiations between Senators Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin, the Senate finally – after comical failures over and over this past year – passed a VERY scaled-down version of the Build Back Better bill. The “IRA” bill…

My Big Fat American Healthcare System

By Geri Katz | July 23, 2022

Noted public health expert Lizzo teaches us that “thick thighs save lives,” but for many of us, being fat is killing us – and not for the reasons you might expect. Today we’re talking about our healthcare system’s impact on fat folks AND how misconceptions about fat folks impact our healthcare policy! Recent studies have…

SiCKO: the 15 Year Reunion

By Geri Katz | July 8, 2022

In spring of 2007, Michael Moore released a blockbuster documentary showing the extraordinary damage the U.S. healthcare system inflicts upon ordinary Americans. Story by story, SiCKO pulled back the veil of how ordinary illness and injury, when paired with deadly healthcare profiteering, leads to suffering, financial ruin, and even death. 15 years later, together with…

Seniors for Sale!

By Geri Katz | June 23, 2022

Show Notes Today we venture into the bizarro world of Medicare (the program serving those 65 and older as well as some people with disabilities) to explore the largest Medicare rate hike in history. Our guest Alex Lawson, the Executive Director of Social Security Works, will help explain what’s happening. Social Security Works is the…

Livin’ On a Prayer: Health Care Sharing Ministries

By Geri Katz | June 9, 2022

Today we look at the somehow-legal world of healthcare sharing ministries, a form of health coverage where like-minded religious folks share health care costs. After a series of lawsuits and scandals, these companies are in the news again recently. We’ll look at what HCSMs are, how they have flourished as insurance costs rise, and the…

Keep Your Hands Off Our Fucking Bodies: Why Reproductive Justice Must Be Part of Medicare for All

By Geri Katz | May 25, 2022

There’s some adult language in this episode, so might not be appropriate for our youngest M4A advocates. The recent leak of what is likely to be the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has us enraged about the future of abortion and healthcare in America. Spoiler: We aren’t loving the fact that five…

Gen Z Healthcare is Trash…No Cap!

By Geri Katz | May 12, 2022

Did you recently turn 26? Get kicked off your parents’ insurance? Have you been scrolling through your state’s healthcare exchange website, wondering if it would just be cheaper to crawl into a hole and die? Have we got the episode for you! We’re sitting down today with Lisa Giordano, Executive Director of the Association of…

Blowing Up the Ambulance Industry

By Geri Katz | April 28, 2022

Today we’re taking about ambulances and the ambulance industry! We know this topic is important because Michael Bay recently released an action movie called… “Ambulance.” This is the director who brings you about 90% of big-budget Hollywood films where car chases happen and lots of shit blows up. And sometimes robots from outer-space. Like a…

This page supported by the Healthcare-NOW Education Fund