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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

26.5 million Americans are insured by UnitedHealth Group, making it the largest insurance company in the U.S. with a whopping 14.4% market share and $287 billion in revenue last year – that’s more than the total income of most countries in Europe! In this episode, we take on this insurance behemoth and how it has…

Today Ben interviews Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, physician, epidemiologist, professor, former executive director of the Detroit Health Department, and candidate for Governor of Michigan. Dr. El-Sayed is also the author of several books and publications, most recently Medicare for All: A Citizen’s Guide. Show Notes Dr. El-Sayed discusses how his desire to improve disparities in health…

Mailbag Episode! Spilling the Tea with Ben and Gillian This week Ben and Gillian take questions from YOU, our listeners, and Medicare for All activists around the country. We got some really great questions submitted over the past week, and some very saucy questions as well – well done listeners! Show Notes Question from Susan…

We’re witnessing the largest war in Europe since World War II, as Russia invades Ukraine. At the moment, U.S. troops are not directly involved in the conflict, but it has got us thinking about the healthcare that military personnel receive, particularly after they’re discharged and rejoin civilian life. There is no one better to talk…

Heads up, there’s a lot of swears in this one. Well-justified swears, we think, but if you have younger listeners nearby, you might want to put on your headphones. Just this past week, billionaire Mark Cuban launched a new healthcare service called – because he’s a megalomaniac –  the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company.…

“Direct contracting” is the latest in a long line of insidious tactics pushing Medicare towards privatization. Today we’re chatting with Dr. Claire Cohen, MD from Physicians for a National Health Program about direct contracting entities: what they are, how they threaten beneficiaries of traditional Medicare, and what is being done to stop them. Show Notes…

Today we’re celebrating a win! We’re talking to organizers and leaders at National Nurses United (NNU),who recently ran a very impactful campaign to get Representative John Garamendi from California to commit to being a co-sponsor for the Medicare for All bill in Congress. Representative Garamendi supported previous versions of Medicare for All legislation, but had…

This week, we’re teaming up with the Poverty Policy Podcast and the National Healthcare for the Homeless Council for a crossover episode! We discuss the Build Back Better bill and weigh its potential impact on individuals experiencing poverty and houselessness. Show Notes The National Health Care for the Homeless Council is a membership organization uniting…

This week we’re doing a “deep” dive into “deep canvassing,” a much-hyped, relatively new organizing tactic that focuses on engaging voters in empathetic conversations. Promising studies have shown that deep canvassing can be effective in reducing prejudice against marginalized groups and changing voter’s minds, even on hotly contested issues like immigration or transgender rights. But…

We answer your questions about why we don’t have Medicare for All yet, interfacing with groups fighting for incremental reforms like Medicaid expansion, and more. Show Notes Starting with an easy one, many people asked: Why don’t we have Medicare for All yet? A few reasons: first, our political system is very different from most…

Today we discuss the sorry state of mental healthcare in the United States, and the impact Medicare for All would have for people who need it. Our guests today are Dr. Beverly Smith, President of the American Mental Health Counselors Association and Guila Todd, Government Affairs Manager at the American Counselor Association. Show Notes The…

The American Dental Association (ADA) – the largest association of dental professionals in the country – are fighting against the proposal to add dental benefits to Medicare. We talk about the politics of ADA opposition to healthcare, and also hear from seniors themselves about what it’s like to go without needed dental care. Dental care…

Are the German and Dutch health insurance systems really private? What would it actually take to transition to a social insurance model? Once and for all, we debunk the myth that we can “build on the current public-private healthcare system” to achieve universal coverage.  Show Notes Ben and Stephanie discuss Healthcare-NOW’s recently-completed comprehensive comparison of…

With the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine receiving full approval from the FDA, and Moderna shortly behind, prepare for an unprecedented wave of drug advertising! This could have a positive impact with regards to vaccination rates, but drug advertising in the U.S. has a dark, deadly history. Joined by guest co-host Gillian Mason, we cover the surprising reasons…

United Healthcare, the largest insurer in the US, announced this May that they may start denying claims from the ER if it turned out the visits were not actual emergencies. Like almost everything in our healthcare system, this policy doesn’t actually make sense on a moral or even a financial level. We discuss the surprisingly…

Last podcast, we discussed expanding and improving Medicare, and since then there are a couple of major updates on the budget moving through Congress, with implications for the M4A movement! We also discuss the history of expanding and improving Medicare (or degrading, in the case of privatization). Show Notes Last podcast, we discussed expanding and…

Congress has an opportunity to make real steps towards Medicare for All this week. We go over the 4 proposed reforms that would expand Medicare, what’s at play and what’s at stake, the opposition to Medicare Expansion – if you can believe it – there IS opposition to giving seniors dental care – and what…

We’re joined by L.A. Kauffman, author of How to Read a Protest: the Art of Organizing and Resistance. L.A. Kauffman was the mobilizing coordinator for some of the largest demonstrations in U.S. history — the massive Iraq antiwar protests of 2003 and 2004 — and has played key roles in many other movements and campaigns. Her…

Stephanie and Ben discuss who developed the vaccine; who is profiting from it; and the fight for global vaccine equity on this episode with guests David Mitchell of Patients for Affordable Drugs and Andrew Goldstein, a public hospital primary care doctor, assistant professor of medicine at NYU, activist, and organizer with the Free the Vaccine…