In this episode of The Heartland Daily Podcast, host AnneMarie Schieber is joined by health economist Devon Herrick for an in-depth discussion on the pressing issues in the U.S. healthcare system. Together, they explore the real-life implications of policies like Obamacare, the growing challenges of Medicare, and the evolving landscape of health insurance options. From short-term plans to the potential of direct primary care, they highlight innovative, free-market solutions that empower individuals and reduce costs.

Discover why health insurance remains prohibitively expensive for many Americans, how government mandates distort the market, and what steps can be taken to promote transparency, competition, and patient-centered care. This episode also delves into topics like the unintended consequences of employer-provided insurance, the future of telemedicine, and creative alternatives for long-term care.

With insights backed by decades of research and expertise, AnneMarie and Devon shed light on how we can move toward a more efficient and accessible healthcare system. Whether you're a policymaker, healthcare professional, or concerned citizen, this episode offers valuable perspectives you won’t want to miss.

Olympian Mary Lou Retton made a stunning revelation when asked why she didn’t have health insurance while she was in intensive care fighting for her life. “I couldn’t afford it,” Retton told the Today Show on January 8 when she was faced with a life threating pneumonia recently. Retton’s daughter started a “Go Fund Me” page to help her mother pay for what was likely to be tens of thousands of dollars in hospital bills.

Health Care News managing editor AnneMarie Schieber talked to Kansas State Senator Beverly Gossage as to why Retton may have gone without health insurance. The likely answer is Obamacare, the only option for people without an employer health plan. Gossage discusses what Retton might have paid for an Obamacare plan without subsidies and why there are almost no other options today for middle income people. She also discusses what Congress needs to do about it.

Read more: https://heartlanddailynews.com/2024/02/i-couldnt-afford-it-olympic-champion-mary-lou-retton-on-health-insurance/

PHOTO: ROBIN MARCHANT/GETTY IMAGES NEWS

You see the reports in the news all the time, a patient on life support has given the “gift of life” by donating organs. Few people realize but organ donors needs to be alive to do this. Hospitals can legally declare people with a brain death diagnosis allowing them to take their vital organs for transplant. Dr. Heidi Klessig is author of The Brain Death Fallacy. She discusses whether brain death is irreversible and how the organ transplant business has grown since the decision in 1968 to include brain function in the legal definition of death.

Klessig: “People defined to be brain dead or dead by neurological criteria have beating hearts, digest food, excrete urine, and even gestate pregnancies and deliver healthy babies. These people are not biologically dead, and their spirits have not departed. Brain death is not death. Many people who were diagnosed as being brain dead have recovered. If brain death was real death, people should not recover even once.”

Klessig also discusses the Uniform Declaration of Death Act, and how New Jersey is the only state that allow families to demand treatment for patients declared “brain dead.” Patients and families can take measures before a crisis to make sure hospitals do not violate their wishes when it comes to life and death issues. For more information, see respectforhumanlife.org