Health Care News Podcast

On this episode of "Health Care News," former Chicago and Illinois politician Robert "Bob" Fioretti shares his experience as a cancer survivor and highlights the challenges he faced navigating the healthcare system, even with "Cadillac" health care coverage.   Fioretti discusses his cancer diagnosis and how he was never formally informed of it. He also shares the difficulties he faced in making tr...

Direct primary care (DPC) gets rave reviews from patients and doctors. So why aren’t more people gravitating to this affordable, no-hassle care that provides care outside that of the health insurance maze? Dr. Lee Gross, a direct primary care physician in southwest Florida, discusses how the Personalized Care Act can open the market for more choice, including better access to DPC. Dr. Gross descri...

It's not hard to find someone not complaining about healthcare these days, but it's not because we lack talented health professionals, it's the delivery system. There is an ongoing battle going on in healthcare that many patients might not realize, and that battle is independent practice versus corporate medicine. Dr. Hal Scherz, Fonder of Docs for Patient Care Foundation and a doctor at  Georgia...

Starting July 21, the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) will be meeting to consider two options that would expand the legal definition of death.  The first option is what currently exists in the Uniform Determination of Death Act and includes loss of total brain function, not just the brain stem. Dr. Heidi Klessig, a retired anesthesiologist and authority on clinical death, explains what the options ar...

The Biden administration recently proposed a new rule to change health care privacy protections under the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). The rule would limit access to medical records if inquired in the interest of “reproductive health.” The proposed rule has created huge blowback because it is seen as a way to get around state laws regulating abortion and transgender...

Did the FDA destroy what could have been a non-addictive pain killer that might have staved off the opioid crisis before it ever stood a chance? Several decades ago, the agency approved the drug Toradol, the first non-addictive pain killer that had pain killing effects of morphine without the addictive potential. However, the FDA set the desired peak dosage, known as the loading dose, far higher t...

This episode of Health Care News focuses on the recent repeal of the Certificate of Need and financial credentialing in the healthcare industry by Governor Henry McMaster on May 17 . Dr. Marcello Hochman, a surgeon in Charleston and president of the organization " IndeDoc ," has been advocating for healthcare market reforms since 2019. In an interview, Hochman explains the process of passing the b...

In early spring of 2021, the family of Grace Schara, a 19-year-old young woman with Down’s Syndrome , brought their daughter to an emergency room at the direction of an urgent care clinic due to wavering blood oxygen levels from COVID-19. According to her father Scott Schara, this was a grave mistake.   Schara claims the hospital, St. Elizabeth’s in Appleton, Wisconsin, became an adversary, not an...

Milton Friedman was a staunch advocate for privatizing Medicaid and Social Security, relying on the free market to regulate healthcare. The 'Plan for America' (PFA) is a proposal to bring this vision to life. Terry Nager, one of the co-authors of this plan, aimed to fortify the nation's entitlement programs, alleviate the country's deficits, debts, and unfunded liabilities, and provide Americans w...

How is it that Mifepristone was approved in the first place?  The drug has high risk implications and because of that was authorized under a specific protocol that the Biden administration is now trying to change after the Dobb’s decision last year that reversed Roe v. Wade.  Guest Rik Mehta comes onto the podcast to discuss the legal nature of it all.

Have you ever visited a pharmacy only to discover that your prescription medication was out of stock? This issue is not limited to drug stores; it also occurs in hospitals and medical clinics, and the cause is rarely due to a lack of raw materials. John Goodman, the president of the Goodman Center for Public Policy Research and co-publisher of Health Care News, testified about prescription drug sh...

Can the doctor taking care of you in the hospital be trusted? In this episode of "Health Care News," Twila Brase, R.N., a leading voice on patient advocacy and privacy, explains how hospitals are employing "hospitalists" who are more accountable to the hospital corporation than to patients. While physicians cannot mistreat patients or neglect their care due to liability and licensing concerns, tho...

In this episode, host AnneMarie Schieber dives into the story of Robert "Bob" Fioretti, an influential figure in the world of Chicago and Illinois politics and cancer survivor. Bob's journey through the healthcare system in the last decade, specifically during treatment for throat cancer, sheds light on the challenges faced by many in the age of Obamacare. Despite having "Cadillac" health coverage...

In this episode of Health Care News, we explore the possibility of the Biden administration declaring a public health emergency to override state regulation of abortion. Our guest, Rik Mehta, a former consumer safety officer at the Food and Drug Administration and an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, sheds light on this contentious issue. Mehta discusses how the public...

Most people recognized the acronym AARP. It’s for the American Association of Retired Persons. But few realize that rather than represent the interests of seniors, AARP acts to promote the interests of the health insurance industry at the expense of retirees and their pocketbooks.    Chris Jacobs, founder of Juniper Research, has been investigating the AARP’s cozy deals with health insurance compa...

Join us for a thought-provoking episode as Matt Dean, Senior Fellow on Health Care Policy Outreach at The Heartland Institute, delves into the latest developments in the federal government's increasing control over healthcare. In this episode of Health Care News, we will explore the recent guidance issued by the Biden administration encouraging states to spend money on "social determinants" affect...

Details are now emerging just how much the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) overstated deaths from COVID-19. Joel Hirschhorn, the editor of the Pandemic Blunder Substack and author of the book, Pandemic Blunder , dug deep into the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System ( VAERS) to see just how brazen the hype had been. Many of the deaths listed as “COVID” were very obvious accident...

Social media companies have defended their close relationship with the government to control the COVID narrative by saying it was voluntary and protected under the First Amendment.  This raises a number of Constitutional red flags, says Jenin Younes , a litigator with the New Civil Liberties Alliance. Younes is representing the private plaintiffs in a First Amendment case filed by the attorneys ge...

Now that Obamacare has been in effect for eight years, data is showing that Medicaid spending on low-income children has not kept pace with states that decided against expanding their programs to able-bodied adults.  Charles Blahous, the J. Fish and Lillian F. Smith Chair and senior research strategist at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, joins Health Care News to discuss this develo...

The Republicans will be in control of the U.S. House starting next month. Brian Blasé and Drew Keyes, both health care policy and administration and legislative veterans now at the Paragon Health Institute, say Congress should focus on four key areas: more affordable health care, ending the COVID-19 health emergency, eliminating waste and abuse at Medicaid, and restoring trust in the CDC and NIH....

The latest report from the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Veterans Affairs shows that more than one in ten staffers have yet to complete mandatory suicide prevention training. Sally Pipes, CEO, president, and health care policy fellow at the Pacific Research Institute discusses the report and why the VA needs to move to a voucher system quickly.   Read the report: https://www...

Reports have a knack for becoming public policy, and the latest report released by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Long COVID could be the next case in point. The report, more a marketing document than a medical report, recommends to “encourage or mandate policies and protocols regarding masking and social distancing in public spaces.” (emphasis added).   Today’s guest is Rik...

You may want to rethink checking that box making you an organ donor. Unlike tissue donation, organs often need to be harvested from a live person in order to be viable for a transplant. Heidi Klessig, M.D., retired anesthesiologist, pain management specialist, and co-founder of respectforhumanlife.com , highlights how hospitals have harvested organs from live patients for the last few years. This...

Many people think the field of eugenics disappeared after the Nazi’s were defeated in WWII. But eugenics, a controversial program to perfect the human race, exists in various forms in modern times. Robert Graboyes, economist, journalist, consultant at RFG Counterpoint, decided to write about the topic. Graboyes was also a panelist that covered the topic in a webinar hosted by The Foundation Agains...

The FDA recently gave emergency use authorization (EUA) to the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine. Unlike the vaccines Americans received as a result of Operation Warp Speed, Novavax is not an mRNA vaccine. It was bypassed for EUA early in the pandemic because of a decision to put all resources into mRNA vaccines as it was thought this provided the best approach to get a vaccine out quickly.  Our guest toda...