Nurse Talk

This time on Code WACK! Why have healthcare giants like United Health and Cigna have been purging some of their commercial accounts and pivoting to government-funded programs like Medicare Advantage and Medicaid? How is this affecting patients? And what is the government doing about it? To find out, we spoke with Wendell Potter, a former health insurance industry executive turned whistleblower, th...

This time on Code WACK! How do some Australians, who have single-payer health care they call Medicare, view the American healthcare system? What do they think about the many people in America who need to have a job to get health insurance? Who set their wedding day with their health insurance in mind? Or who have health insurance but go bankrupt anyway, because it doesn't cover all their medical b...

This time on Code WACK! How does Australia's healthcare system work and why is it considered one of the best in the world? What are some of the ways the Australian healthcare system, which they call Medicare, and private health insurance differ from ours? An Australian citizen, Anna is founder and CEO of The Circular Water Company in Sydney. Through frequent visits to family in the United States,...

This time on Code WACK! What is “data justice” and how does it inform and refine health policies for invisibilized communities? What policy solutions are needed to reduce health disparities among people, especially marginalized Latinx and indigenous communities? What role does the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California play in advancing the health of vulnerable communities throughout the state?...

This time on Code WACK! Public health advocacy requires considerable insight into the major issues that affect communities. How best to gain this insight? What role does direct personal experience play? Today Seciah Aquino, DrPH, MS shares how her lived experience as an immigrant has informed her work as Executive Director of a leading health equity advocacy organization, the Latino Coalition for...

This time on Code WACK! Rebate aggregators? Group purchasing? Vertical integration? How exactly do Pharmacy Benefit Managers, or PBMs, operate to maximize profit? And how are everyday Americans suffering from these practices? To find out, we spoke to Dr. Ed Weisbart, national board secretary of Physicians for a National Health Program, a single-payer advocacy coalition that boasts more than 25,000...

We’re taking another look at Pharmacy Benefit Managers or PBMs. Why were PBMs started and how did they morph to become one of the most powerful entities in health care? Why have they caught the attention of the Federal Trade Commission? How are they a threat to consumers? To find out, we spoke to Dr. Ed Weisbart, the national board secretary of Physicians for a National Health Program and former c...

What’s at stake in health care with the upcoming federal election? Would Donald Trump really try to repeal the Affordable Care Act - again? Would Kamala Harris continue fighting to rein in the skyrocketing cost of medicine? What will be the fate of Biden-era policies like enhanced tax credits limiting the cost of health insurance premiums? Or access to reproductive health care (including contracep...

The fight for affordable, accessible health care in the U.S. has gone on for decades. Who’s in the fight to win solutions that improve health care for everyone? What policies are they working on? Today we’re featuring the Washington DC-based Families USA, a leading national nonpartisan voice for healthcare consumers. We welcome their new executive director, Anthony Wright, who previously served fo...

This time on Code WACK! What are lawmakers and the Federal Trade Commission doing about Pharmacy Benefit Managers and their undue influence over drug prices and access? Who is watching out for consumers when the pharmaceutical industry pursues self-serving arrangements? And what’s the impact on independent pharmacies and their patients? To find out, we recently interviewed Hannah Garden-Monheit, d...

This time on Code WACK! So you might have heard the term pharmacy benefit managers – or PBMs – in the news. But what are they? How did these middlemen get to be so powerful? How are they causing drug prices to skyrocket? And what’s the Federal Trade Commission doing about it? To find out, we recently interviewed Hannah Garden-Monheit, the FTC’s director of the Office of Policy Planning. Prior to j...

This time on Code WACK! As the United States faces an election possibly unlike any other in our history, we wonder about the future of our healthcare system. What changes might we expect under President Trump, or President Harris? What would a new administration mean for single-payer efforts in states like California and Oregon? And what about Medicare, a lifeline for so many vulnerable Americans?...

What’s been happening on the healthcare front since California Senate Bill 770, which paves the way for a single-payer healthcare system, was passed last year? What’s the process and the timeline? What are the necessary next steps to winning single payer in the Golden State and why is it so important to achieving healthcare equity? To find out we spoke to the one and only Michael Lighty, president...

Need out-of-state coverage? Get ready to jump through hoops & pay through the nose. This time on Code WACK! How far did one man have to go to get the health insurance he needed to cover a specialized surgery in another state? Despite jumping through many hoops to even qualify to buy the coverage he needed, why did he still end up paying tens of thousands of dollars in out of pocket costs? How much...

This time on Code WACK! Imagine having to fight with your HMO insurer about compensating your surgeon who doesn't belong to your provider network, but happens to be a specialist in a particular procedure that you want because it has fewer side effects. Could you afford to cough up a few thousand dollars to pay the surgeon while hassling with your HMO? But the story doesn't end there. What if you t...

Why did California’s latest single payer bill fail and what can we do about it? How can the public learn the truth about how much they could save with unified financing when deep-pocketed corporations keep lobbying legislators against it? What will it take to make Medicare for All a reality once and for all? To find out, we asked Jodi Reid, executive director of California Alliance for Retired Ame...

This time on Code WACK! Why is long term care, including in-home health care, in crisis? How are skyrocketing costs affecting patients? How come two-thirds of people in California who are getting in-home health care get it from family members who are often unpaid? Would universal long term care - or a single-payer system with unified financing - help? To find out, we spoke to Jodi Reid, executive...

This time on Code WACK! How do insurance companies put up barriers to addiction treatments? How does this affect treatment programs and their clients? And how would it be if we had Medicare for All? To find out, we spoke to Arlene Stanich-Prince, executive director of Ohlhoff Recovery Programs in San Francisco, one of the longest standing treatment programs in the area. This is the second of two e...

This time on Code WACK! What are some of the most common misconceptions about people who are addicted to substances like opioids? What medicines are revolutionizing the way people are being treated today – and how accessible are they? To find out, we spoke to Arlene Stanich-Prince, executive director of Ohlhoff Recovery Programs in San Francisco, one of the longest standing treatment programs in t...

What is the true cost of the American health insurance system? What toll is it taking on both patients and providers? And what do we need instead? To find out, we recently interviewed Dr. Linda Peeno, a physician, ethicist and health insurance industry whistleblower who testified before Congress and who has spent nearly four decades working to protect patients from harm and death by corporate heal...

How did a single mom in Kentucky, in the 1970s, become a physician, then a health insurance medical reviewer and eventually a whistleblower? To find out, we recently interviewed Dr. Linda Peeno, a physician and ethicist who has spent nearly four decades working to protect patients from harm and death by corporate healthcare systems. Dr. Peeno was played by actor Laura Dern in the 2002 docudrama “D...

In honor of PRIDE Month, we’re revisiting a popular episode about the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 1990s. What were the health policy failures that spurred so many Americans to militant activism? How did the LGBTQ+ community win the struggle to get government funding to address the deadly virus? Fortunately, today, with appropriate medical intervention, more and more people are living, instead...

This time on Code WACK! At least seven states are grappling with budget shortfalls in 2024. What goes on behind the scenes when a state needs to cut costs? Who stands to lose the most as programs are trimmed or eliminated? Today we're looking at California’s multi-billion dollar budget deficit – and what's being done to protect the state’s most vulnerable residents. To find out, we spoke to Jodi R...

This time on Code WACK! How do Managed Care health insurance plans hurt patients? Why is it legal for commercial health insurers to use Denial-of-Care as a business model? And what is one organization doing to call attention to such issues? To find out, we spoke to Kimberly J. Soenen, founder of “SOME PEOPLE,” a Chicago-based not-for-profit organization and multiverse channel dedicated to removing...

This time on Code WACK! What’s the impact of health insurance denial-of-care tactics? Who “wins” when new employees have to wait three months before their health insurance kicks in? What devastating physical, financial and emotional consequences did one young woman face after she was seriously injured during such a waiting period? To find out, we spoke to Kimberly Soenen, the Minnesota-based found...