Tradeoffs

Several cities and counties are addressing street homelessness with a new approach, which experts say can clear encampments while protecting the health of people who are forced to move. Guests: Josh Barocas , Associate Professor, University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine Marc Dones , Policy Director, Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, University of California San Francisco Ryan...

Facing mounting financial pressures, insurance companies are changing the prescription drug coverage available to many consumers in Medicare Part D. Guests: Stacie Dusetzina , Professor of Health Policy, Vanderbilt University Steven Hadfield , Medicare beneficiary Mark Newsom , Managing Director, Avalere Health Erin Trish , Co-Director, USC Schaeffer Center Cindy Trish , Medicare beneficiary Lesli...

Higher premiums and penalties have made shopping for Obamacare plans more confusing this year. Federal funding cuts have left consumers in many states with fewer guides to help them navigate their options. “I don’t want people to just feel ghosted,” a West Virginia navigator told Tradeoffs. Guest: Jeremy Smith, director, West Virginia navigator program, First Choice Services. Learn more and read a...

Physician and New Yorker writer Dhruv Khullar says artificial intelligence is a powerful tool to get quicker and more accurate diagnoses. But it can also be dangerous. Guest: Dhruv Khullar , Physician, Weill Cornell Medical College; Contributing Writer, The New Yorker Learn more and read a full transcript on our website . Want more Tradeoffs? Sign up for our free weekly newsletter featuring the la...

Facing unprecedented pressure from the Trump administration, some of the world’s top drugmakers promise to cut prices. But experts say the savings might not be what they seem. Guests: Michael Cannon , Director of Health Policy Studies, Cato Institute Stacie Dusetzina , Professor of Health Policy, Vanderbilt University Darius Lakdawalla , Chief Scientific Officer, USC Schaeffer Center Pete Loftus ,...

Journalist Paula Span, who writes The New Old Age column for the New York Times, shares what she’s learned about how to age well. Guest: Paula Span , reporter and The New Old Age columnist for the New York Times Learn more and read a full transcript on our website . Want more Tradeoffs? Sign up for our free weekly newsletter featuring the latest health policy research and news. Support this type o...

What happens if President Trump cuts billions from research on how to make our health care system work better? Guest(s): Aaron Carroll , President and CEO, Academy Health Stuart Buck , Executive Director, Good Science Project Learn more on our website . Want more Tradeoffs? Sign up for our free weekly newsletter featuring the latest health policy research and news. Support this type of journalism...

It's been 90 days since Congress passed Trump’s megabill slashing health care spending and reshaping the Medicaid program. States are already knee-deep in dealing with the fallout. Guests: Hemi Tewarson , Executive Director, National Academy for State Health Policy Leslie Walker, Senior Producer, Tradeoffs Learn more on our website . Want more Tradeoffs? Sign up for our free weekly newsletter feat...

Excerpts of a live conversation with two top health economists about how extra federal support has helped millions of Americans access health insurance, and what would happen if that aid went away. Guests: Katherine Baicker , Provost and Emmett Dedmon Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago Jonathan Gruber , Ford Professor of Economics, MIT Learn more on our website , and watch the...

Every year, millions of people’s medical care runs into the roadblock known as prior authorization, which requires an insurer to sign off before chemotherapy, surgery or countless other services can proceed. Who does this often onerous process help, who does it hurt and how could it work better for everyone? Guests: Tom Roberts , Oncologist, Mass General Cancer Center Aaron Schwartz , Assistant Pr...

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Sarah Stillman explains why so many people with mental illness are starving to death in U.S. jails, who is profiting, and what can be done to prevent it. Guest: Sarah Stillman , Staff Writer, New Yorker; Founder, Yale Investigative Reporting Lab Learn more on our website . Want more Tradeoffs? Sign up for our free weekly newsletter featuring the latest health poli...

Federal subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans are scheduled to shrink next year. Many shoppers are expected to be priced out of the market, leaving those who stay with higher premiums. It’s a dynamic that threatens to repeat, leaving markets with fewer and more expensive options as insurers exit, too. How did we get here? Guest(s): Jonathan Kolstad , professor, Haas School of Business, Un...

As states struggle to meet the needs of people with serious mental illness, some are signing on to a federal pilot project that’s funneling new funding into institutional care. Guests: Alex Barnard , Assistant Professor of Sociology, New York University Danny Pasquini, patient Teresa Pasquini , Advocate Tyler Sadwith , Medicaid Director, California Department of Health Care Services Morgan Shields...

Worrying about deportation can literally make people sick. Health care providers are scrambling to cut through their undocumented patients’ panic about President Trump’s new immigration policies. Guests: Maria Steph Willding , CEO, CommunityHealth Emily Hendel , Director of Clinical Services, CommunityHealth Samantha Artiga , Vice President and Director for Racial Equity Health Policy Program, KFF...

A mandate to make health care prices public was one of President Trump’s signature health policies in his first term. But forcing hospitals to publish prices hasn’t yet helped patients shop around for medical care. Guest: Melanie Evans , Producer, Tradeoffs Learn more and read a full transcript on our website . Support this type of journalism today, with a gift . Follow us on Twitter .  Hoste...

One organization turns to a game to get employees to debate and decide together what health care they most value.  Guests: Paul Fronstin, Ph. D., Director, Health Benefits Research, Employee Benefits Research Institute  Jeanette Janota, Senior Research Associate, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Tavril Saint Jean, Senior Research Associate, American Speech-Language-Hearing As...

More than half of states — from deep blue California to solidly red Louisiana — want to bring Medicaid behind bars in hopes of saving the lives of people as they leave jail and prison. Guests: Lee Reed Shira Shavit , MD, Professor of Family and Community Medicine, University of California San Francisco; Executive Director, Transitions Clinic Network Jacey Cooper , Director, California Medicaid Pro...

A leading addiction expert explains how he’s driven by the memory of a friend who died, and why he believes giving data on the drug supply to people on the street is more important than using it to inform national drug policy. Guest: Nabarun Dasgupta , Epidemiologist, University of North Carolina Street Drug Analysis Lab and Opioid Data Lab Learn more and read a full transcript on our website . Wa...

Harrison Memorial Hospital in Cynthiana, Kentucky is already taking a hard look at its budget in light of Republican cuts to Medicaid. Here’s what that looks like. Guest: David Asher, Chief Strategy Officer at Harrison Memorial Hospital in Cynthiana, KY Learn more and read a full transcript on our website . Want more Tradeoffs? Sign up for our free weekly newsletter featuring the latest health pol...

How the federal government has restricted health care access for transgender Americans, and how those shifts in policy and rhetoric are changing life for one Alabama family. Guests: Orion Rummler , LGBTQ+ Reporter, The 19th Harleigh Walker Jeff Walker Learn more and read a full transcript on our website and see highlights from our conversation with Harleigh and Jeff Walker here . Want more Tradeof...

North Carolina’s former health secretary explains the heavy lift and hard choices ahead of states as they rush to put Republicans' new health reforms in place. Guest: Kody Kinsley , Senior Policy Advisor, Johns Hopkins School of Nursing; former North Carolina secretary of health and human services Learn more and read a full transcript on our website . Want more Tradeoffs? Sign up for our free week...

Health law expert Katie Keith helps us break down what a pair of big court decisions mean for RFK Jr.’s power and for people's access to abortion, cancer screening and many other kinds of care. Guest: Katie Keith , Director, Health Policy and the Law Initiative at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law Learn more and read a full transcript on our website . Want more Tradeoffs? Si...

On June 18, Tradeoffs moderated an online event with economists and doctors examining why this legislation could cost so many people their health coverage — or even their lives. Guests: Eric Roberts , Associate Professor, Department of General Internal Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine Aditi Vasan , Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine Rachel Werner , Exec...

The White House is asking Congress to sharply roll back federal spending on HIV prevention, a reversal from President Trump’s first term, when he championed investment to end the epidemic in America within a decade. Guests: Hana Fields , outreach manager, Health Outreach Prevention Education  Dr. Patrick Sullivan , professor of epidemiology, Emory University Rollins School of Public Health Br...

The Health and Human Services chief’s latest action on vaccinations is unprecedented, and quickly drew condemnation from medical groups who said his dismissal of the vaccine advisory committee put public health at risk. Here’s why the members of that committee are so important. Guest: Ron Balajadia, Hawaii Department of Health immunization branch chief Dorit Reiss , University of California, San F...