The Pursuit of Health: a podcast on health policy for a free and modern society.

Hospitals often use profitable services, like orthopedics, to prop-up unprofitable services, like emergency care. In this episode, Jared Rhoads explains how such cross-subsidization not only distorts healthcare prices, but also why we should challenge hospitals' use of cross-subsidization as a justification to prevent much needed market reforms in healthcare. Check out Jared Rhoads' article on hos...

The independence of physicians to practice medicine as they see fit has been eroded over the decades, with the collapse of independent practices and the growth of medical bureaucracy. What will it take to reclaim physician independence? In this episode, we argue that what it will take is to reclaim the very meaning of physician independence, not as an independence from market forces and business,...

Traditional insurers use provider 'networks' to negotiate lower prices for their policyholders, but they also limit choice and hide prices from patients. What if there is no-network? In this episode, Emily Kolego from Sidecar Health explains how her organization has expanded the idea of no-network health insurance, and how it liberates patients to shop for their own healthcare. We discuss the chal...

Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) are blamed for making prescription drugs more expensive for profit. Yet, PBMs play a necessary role in navigating a complex third-party payer system. In this episode, Jessica Dobrinsky argues that adding more regulations onto PBMs will simply contribute to the complexity and inflexibility that has distorted the drug benefit market to begin with. Instead, we should...

Corporate Practice of Medicine (CPOM) laws were intended to protect physicians from corporate control. But in practice, CPOM laws disarm physicians against corporations, including private equity backed takeovers. In this episode, we argue that doctors should embrace business, not insulate themselves from it, if they want to regain their professional autonomy. Please like, share, and subscribe to o...

Advocates for free-markets often argue that healthcare is not a right, not if defined as the right to someone else's labor. While not disputing this basic point, Jared Rhoads in this audio-article reframes the case for free-markets in terms of the right that we do have in healthcare, namely, the right to freely pursue our own health with those who can provide it to us in voluntary trade. This refr...

Section 6001 of the Affordable Care Act prohibits Physician-Owned Hospitals from receiving Medicare dollars for providing care to Medicare patients. Should we repeal Section 6001 to introduce more freedom in the healthcare system and competition against corporate-owned hospitals? Or should we maintain the ban if it saves taxpayer's money? This is a false alternative, and in this episode discuss wh...

Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad tried to reform the FDA, increasing standards for some drugs while fast tracking others. Now they are out. Was it impossible to both protect patients from low-value drugs and give quicker access to those who want to use drugs of disputed value? Jared Rhoads proposes a reform to the FDA that can resolve these conflicts, by separating the right the bring a drug to marke...

If acute healthcare services, so-called "sickcare", is more expensive than paying for preventive care to maintain your overall wellness, why don't health insurers invest more in prevention? The answer lies in a broken incentive structure. In this episode, health economist Tina Marsh Dalton breaks down why our system is built for "sickcare"—prioritizing acute crises over long-term wellness. We expl...

While patients no longer get surprise bills for seeing out-of-network providers, the No Surprises Act (NSA) has replaced them with new surprises for all stakeholders in healthcare. In this episode, we discuss how real prices, not more enforcement, is the only truly fair and practical solution to surprise bills and claims. Without real healthcare prices, expect surprises! To support our show, and t...

Large health systems claim Certificate of Need (CON) laws protect the community. In this episode, Jessica Dobrinsky exposes the truth: these laws aren't about serving patients — they are pure economic protectionism designed to stifle competition and access to care. Join us as we deconstruct the bureaucratic "permission slips" holding American medicine back. Check out Jessica's substack Clear Lines...

In this episode Jared Rhoads narrates his article 'Policy and Pluralism in the Age of Modern Medicine'. The future of medical progress and personalized care is incompatible with our one-size-fits-all approach to health policy. In order to truly harness the power of science to serve our individual health needs, the implicit medical paternalism in current health policy approaches needs to be replace...

Healthcare fraud is a billion dollar industry in America. The Trump administration has vowed to 'crush' healthcare fraud. We discuss the limitations of only pursuing bad actors to prevent healthcare fraud, and we argue that reforms should also focus on liberating honest providers. To support our show, and the Center for Modern Health, you can make a tax deductible donation here .

The idea that more healthcare dollars should be controlled by patients themselves has been gaining ground in recent years. In this episode, Terry Wilcox explains her vision and strategy of how to leverage the voices of patients to advocate for them to have more control over their own healthcare decision by giving them more control over how healthcare dollars are spent. You can learn more about Ter...

American healthcare for decades has proven immune from disruption in how healthcare is paid for and delivered. This has started to change with the likes of Mark Cuban disrupting how we pay for drugs. Can such disruption now change the rest of healthcare? Or does disruption require something more than simply challenging vested interests? We discuss these questions and more in this episode on how di...

How we pay for healthcare is broken. Some insist that we just need to fix health insurance as the main way of paying for most of our healthcare. Others are developing new ways to shop for healthcare that does not require insurance, such as direct primary care and cost-plus pharmacies. In this episode we discuss the practicality and morality of shopping for healthcare. To support our show, and the...

Direct pay models in healthcare are growing yet face many barriers, both cultural and regulatory. CMH's Jared Rhoads shares his story of testifying for a bill that would make it possible for direct-pay medical facilities to operate in New Hampshire, by allowing them to legally refuse certain kinds of payments, such as health insurance. Legalizing and normalizing alternative forms of paying for hea...

Foreign-trained doctors face numerous barriers to practice medicine at a time when a shortage of doctors, especially in rural and primary care, means that many Americans struggle to access the healthcare they need. CMH's Jared Rhoads has been engaged in the fight to make it easier for foreign-trained doctors to practice in Vermont. Jared shares his insights on state-level healthcare reform and CMH...

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Josh Hawley have proposed a bill that would break up vertically integrated healthcare corporations in an effort to increase competition, choice, and the affordability of healthcare. In this episode, we discuss how this bill identifies legitimate problems but that giving the government more power to shape healthcare is not the solution. Instead, we show how we can make...

American healthcare is in crisis. Yet the debate about how to fix American healthcare has not fundamentally changed. In this episode of the pursuit of health, Jared Rhoads, Colleen Smith, and Reinier Schuur expose the hidden assumptions behind how we debate our healthcare, and how a new view of health as a value can move us to a freer pursuit of health on a free market. You can read Jared's articl...

The un-affordability of healthcare is not merely an economic issue, but an issue of justice and what we have a right to in healthcare. In this episode, Colleen Smith and Reinier Schuur argue that the view that we have a right to healthcare without consideration of cost is unjust and leads to its un-affordability. What we do have a right to is the freedom to have a relationship with doctors that do...

A real alternative to the ACA enhanced subsidies, let alone Obamacare itself, remains elusive. Why? In this episode we expose how Obamacare represents a failure to move beyond the false promise of having insurance pay for most of healthcare while preserving our freedom. To develop a real alternative to Obamacare requires fully embracing freedom as our moral ideal.

Healthcare reform is back in the national spotlight. But what are the prospects that the broken American healthcare system will be reformed in a way that not only preserves the little freedom that remains within it, but actually expands it? In this episode Reinier Schuur, Colleen Smith, and Jared Rhoads expose the shortcoming of both the progressive and conservative approaches to reforming America...

The profit motive is often blamed as the reason for why medical professionals have lost their freedom to practice medicine as they see fit in American healthcare. In this episode of rethinking American healthcare, Drs. Colleen Smith and Reinier Schuur argue that the exact opposite is the case; medical professionals have lost their freedom to practice precisely because they are not free to pursue p...

A free market in healthcare is based on the recognition that your health is your own. Yet there is a legitimate role of government in the realm of public health. In this episode, Reinier Schuur discusses with Dr. Amesh Adalja the crucial distinction between private and public health, and what the legitimate and illegitimate roles of government are in the realm of public health.