Dr. Valerie Fuller, president of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), joined the Health Policy Podcast to discuss a federal policy proposal that could have significant implications for the health care workforce and patient access to care across the country.

AANP is the largest organization representing nurse practitioners in the United States.

In January, the U.S. Department of Education released a proposed rule that would redefine which degree programs qualify as "professional" for the purposes of federal student loan limits. While this may sound technical, the decision could directly impact nurse practitioner students and, ultimately, the availability of care in communities nationwide.

Dr. Fuller discussed what this proposal means and why it has drawn national attention.

Monique Yohanon, a physician and Senior Fellow for Health Policy at Independent Women, joined the Health Policy Podcast to discuss the FDA's newly released dietary guidelines and why decades-old recommendations were overdue for change.

Yohanon explained how the traditional food pyramid and low-fat framework shaped American eating habits for more than 40 years, often with unintended consequences for metabolic health. She outlined why newer guidance places greater emphasis on protein, healthy fats, and fiber, and how these shifts better reflect current scientific understanding.

The conversation also explored the importance of personalized nutrition, noting that one-size-fits-all dietary advice often fails to account for individual health needs. Yohanon raised concerns about the growing influence of political and bureaucratic priorities in shaping nutrition policy, warning that public health guidance can suffer when ideology overrides evidence.

The episode examines what these updated guidelines mean for consumers and policymakers, and why restoring trust in nutrition science requires transparency, flexibility, and a renewed focus on real food.

What does it say about a country's health system when chronic illness becomes normal in childhood?

In this episode of the Health Policy Podcast, I sit down with Steve Cortes, former senior advisor to President Trump and a documentary filmmaker, to unpack the thinking behind the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement. Steve argues that the timing is no coincidence. He points to a convergence of troubling indicators, from rising rates of chronic illness among U.S. children to declining life expectancy and a shrinking pool of young adults physically eligible for military service. Taken together, he believes these trends signal a deeper systemic failure rather than isolated public health challenges.

We also reflect on how the COVID-19 pandemic acted as a catalyst rather than a cause. According to Steve, the last few years exposed structural weaknesses in the medical establishment and accelerated public skepticism around authority, incentives, and transparency. Our conversation explores how that moment reshaped attitudes toward informed consent, preventive care, and the role of diet and lifestyle in long-term health outcomes. Rather than framing MAHA as a partisan response, Steve positions it as a reaction to data that many policymakers have struggled to confront head-on.

We close by discussing Steve's MAHA documentary and where listeners can watch it. The film shifts the focus away from reactive, late-stage interventions and toward upstream prevention, asking why health systems are so often designed to treat crisis rather than support everyday wellbeing. It is a conversation that challenges assumptions about medicine, policy, and responsibility, and invites a broader rethink of how health is defined and protected in the first place.

If the data keeps pointing in the same direction, are we prepared to rethink healthcare before the next crisis forces the issue, and what would that shift actually require?