Code WACK!

Did  Gov. Gavin Newsom  change his mind on single payer? Is the Healthy California for All Commission meeting its mandate? Where are the major California healthcare foundations when it comes to reform?   Michael Lighty , founding fellow of the Sanders Institute and former healthcare constituency director for Bernie 2020 , and host Brenda Gazzar discuss the principal players in California's struggl...

Why won't our legislators take up the political fight against health insurers and pharmaceutical companies? How can we shift the definition of what's politically possible when it comes to our health care? In this third episode in a podcast series with host  Brenda Gazzar , Michael Lighty , founding fellow of the Sanders Institute and former healthcare constituency director for Bernie 2020, discuss...

What's holding the U.S. back from Medicare for All ? (Hint: It's not just Trump.) What about California ? In this second episode in a podcast series with host  Brenda Gazzar , Michael Lighty , founding fellow of the Sanders Institute and former healthcare constituency director for Bernie 2020, discusses the political obstacles to winning single payer and the essential connection to the issue of ra...

Will "a little bit of this and a little bit of that" solve America's healthcare problems? Is COVID-19 a game-changer in the fight for single-payer? In this first episode of a podcast series with host Brenda Gazzar, Michael Lighty , founding fellow of the Sanders Institute and former healthcare constituency director for Bernie 2020, discusses the Medicare-for-All movement and the Democratic Party's...

How are some hospitals conserving personal protective equipment ? (Hint: In ways that would be unthinkable before the pandemic.) And who's ultimately responsible for assuring sufficient PPE supplies?  Code WACK! host Brenda Gazzar and Rose Roach, executive director of the Minnesota Nurses Association , compare the rules for PPE use before and after COVID-19.  Plus, if PPE is in such short stock, w...

Who and what gets left out when health care is driven by profit? How does " lean model management " affect public health preparedness? Code WACK! host Brenda Gazzar and Rose Roach , executive director of  the  Minnesota Nurses Association , compare racial inequities in Minnesota and the rest of the nation. Plus, what's the cost of the perverse incentives implicit in our for-profit healthcare syste...

How are nurses of color impacted by racism, both on the job and in the streets? Could using weapons of war against protesters increase the spread of coronavirus ? Code WACK! host Brenda Gazzar and Rose Roach , executive director of the Minnesota Nurses Association , discuss the concerns nurses have today, as America struggles against both a pandemic and its racist past .

How do U.S. policies intensify the vulnerability of Black communities, including during pandemics? What caused the historical distrust between the Black community and the American healthcare system? Code WACK! host Brenda Gazzar and Janel Bailey , Co-Executive Director of Organizing and Programs at the Los Angeles Black Worker Center , discuss how public policies around eviction, employment and me...

How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting Black workers? What does it mean in light of the inequality the Black community already faces? Code WACK! host Brenda Gazzar and Janel Bailey , Co-Executive Director of Organizing and Programs at the Los Angeles Black Workers Center , discuss the racial inequities of "flattening the curve" and explore how shelter-in-place rules are less likely to protect b...

Why are people of color disproportionately affected by chronic illnesses like diabetes and asthma? Is it the individual's fault, or is it their environment? Would better health insurance help? Listen as John Kim , Executive Director of Advancement Project California  and  Code WACK! host Brenda Gazzar explore strategies to build trust and save lives. Plus, why universal health insurance is only pa...

What's America's deadliest underlying condition? How have decades of unbridled gentrification, racial and economic segregation and discrimination intersected to keep communities of color in the eye of the pandemic in Los Angeles? John Kim, Executive Director of Advancement Project California , and Code WACK! host Brenda Gazzar examine the systemic injustices exacerbated by COVID-19. Plus, why buil...

How does it feel to risk your life just going to work, like during the coronavirus pandemic ? What's the best way to tackle the PPE shortage ? In this final episode in a four-part series, Dr. Philip Verhoef , Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Hawaii and ICU physician, joins host Brenda Gazzar to discuss these issues, plus how South Korea' s government-run healthcare system bolste...

Why was there such an uneven distribution of testing capacity in the United States and how can we address that problem in the future? How does bureaucracy impact American health care? In this third of a podcast series, Dr. Philip Verhoef , Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Hawaii and ICU physician, joins host Brenda Gazzar to explore how pooling resources and minimizing bureaucra...

How has our fragmented healthcare system affected our ability to perform basic public health functions? What lessons can we learn from other countries with nationally-centralized electronic health records? With host Brenda Gazzar, Dr. Philip Verhoef , Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Hawaii and ICU physician, takes a closer look at Taiwan's Medicare-for-All system and how it mad...

How can we maximize our ability to confront pandemics like the coronavirus? Which strategies are working for us, and which are failing? With host Brenda Gazzar , Dr. Philip Verhoef , Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Hawaii and ICU physician, contrasts America's failure to efficiently distribute resources like PPE with the successful adoption of telemedicine - an effort led by Me...

Why does the U.S. lack a universal, Medicare-for-All-type healthcare system like many other developed countries have? What are the consequences? In this fifth and final episode of a podcast series with host Brenda Gazzar, Dr. Tony Iton , senior vice president for Healthy Communities at The California Endowment , discusses America's long history of racism and both its impact on healthcare reform an...

How does the lack of universal sick leave and health care affect America's ability to respond to pandemics?  In this fourth in a series with host Brenda Gazzar , Dr. Tony Iton , Senior Vice President for Healthy Communities at The California Endowment , explains why Western Europe and the U.S. may have very different public policies. Will the coronavirus finally create a sense of shared fate and s...

Learn which of us are most vulnerable during this pandemic, and why. In this third of a podcast series with host Brenda Gazzar , Dr. Tony Iton , senior vice president for Healthy Communities at The California Endowment, describes the intersection of p olicy, income inequality, race and social vulnerability . Which policy solutions weaken our nation in the face of health crises like the coronavirus...

Learn how deforestation and climate change are increasing the likelihood of future pandemics and what America can do to prepare for them. In this second of a podcast series with host Brenda Gazzar , Dr. Tony Iton , senior vice president for Healthy Communities at The California Endowment, explains how our market-based healthcare system incentivizes profits over public health investments. How would...

Find out how the erosion of America's public health system undermined our response to the deadly coronavirus pandemic. In this first of a podcast series, Dr. Tony Iton , senior vice president for Healthy Communities at The California Endowment , explains how having a patchwork health insurance system, along with a weakened public health system, has left America even more vulnerable during the cris...

What's more precious than our children? Yet a growing number of children are losing insurance and as a result, access to health care. How does this impact them? Join host Brenda Gazzar as Dr. Ana Malinow , UCSF pediatrician, shares stories of young patients and the sometimes devastating consequences they faced. Why are children losing their health insurance today, after the Affordable Care Act? Ho...

How do parents balance their own needs and their children's in America's high-stakes healthcare system? Learn how one devoted mother was forced to make a choice with traumatic consequences. Rebecca Wood , a Boston mother, has faced a years-long struggle to pay for the care needed by her daughter Charlie, who was born severely premature at only 26 weeks gestation. How were their lives changed by th...

Learn how America's corporate healthcare system delays and/or denies care to save money and increase profits. Wendell Potter , co-founder of Business for Medicare for All and former Communications Director for CIGNA, explains the often arbitrary nature of insurance coverage denials. Host Brenda Gazzar explores how such denials impact patients and their doctors. Guests include Dr. Barbara Goff , bo...

Learn about the unique challenges women face when it comes to accessing health care. Dr. Ana Malinow , a pediatrician, and her husband Dr. Aleksandar Rajkovic , an obstetrician, talk with host Brenda Gazzar about how women are vulnerable, and reveal the risky calculation some women make when forced to delay or avoid care. Don't forget to subscribe to the show!

Find out why health care costs so much -- and how Medicare for All would help. Host Brenda Gazzar and long-time consumer advocate Harry Snyder , a lecturer at UC Berkeley School of Public Health, discuss how our current healthcare system is failing us. Then, Dr. James G. Kahn , a health economics expert and emeritus professor at UC San Francisco, explains how our complicated system of public and p...