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?

Fred Roeder, health economist and managing director of the Consumer Choice Center, joined the Health Policy Podcast to explain why price transparency remains one of the biggest failures in the U.S. healthcare system. Roeder discussed how opaque hospital pricing leaves patients exposed to unexpected medical bills, even for routine procedures such as MRIs and lab work.

During the conversation, Roeder outlined how high deductibles and cost-sharing mean patients often pay thousands of dollars out of pocket before insurance coverage applies, making price awareness critical. He shared real-world examples showing how the same medical service can vary dramatically in cost depending on the provider, even when quality and equipment are identical.

Roeder also addressed structural issues driving high healthcare costs, including weak enforcement of hospital price transparency rules, administrative overhead, and the misuse of the federal 340B drug pricing program, which allows hospitals to purchase discounted drugs without passing savings on to patients. He argued that these practices contribute to rising premiums, medical debt, and reduced consumer trust.

The episode concludes with practical advice for patients, including how to ask the right questions before scheduling non-emergency care, how to compare providers, and why stronger enforcement of existing transparency laws is necessary to restore consumer choice and accountability in healthcare.

Jared Rhoads, Director of the Center for Modern Health, joins the Health Policy Podcast to discuss why healthcare has drifted away from free-market principles and why reform remains so difficult.

Rhoads explains how healthcare evolved from an individual responsibility into a government-managed system, driving bureaucracy, compliance costs, and reduced innovation. He also outlines how a more market-driven approach could improve efficiency, lower costs, and restore accountability in today's healthcare system.

In this episode of the Health Policy Podcast, Ryan Ellis, president of the Center for a Free Economy, discusses the expiration of COVID-era Affordable Care Act subsidies and why he believes they should not be extended.

Ellis explains how the ACA's design mandates limit competition, drive up insurance premiums, and distort the healthcare market. He also examines the political incentives behind continued subsidy expansion, the role of insurers and hospital systems, and recent examples of fraud within federal assistance programs.

The conversation highlights the need for stronger oversight, work requirements, and long-term structural reforms to restore accountability and sustainability in U.S. healthcare policy.
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In this episode of the Health Policy Podcast, Ross Marchand, executive director of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, examines how the federal 340B drug pricing program has strayed far from its original intent. Marchand explains how a program designed to lower prescription drug costs for vulnerable patients has evolved into a system that allows large, well-funded hospitals to purchase discounted drugs, sell them at full price, and retain the profits—amounting to billions of dollars annually.

The discussion also explores why the Affordable Care Act continues to be treated as politically untouchable, despite market distortions that benefit healthcare providers and insurers while leaving patients and taxpayers behind. Marchand outlines potential paths forward, including meaningful reform of the 340B program or eliminating it entirely to restore transparency, accountability, and fairness in healthcare pricing.

In this intro episode of the ç host Brian Hyde explains why this show exists and what listeners can expect from future conversations. He argues that healthcare policy is among the most complex and consequential areas of public life, yet many of its most important decisions happen behind closed doors in Washington, inside large health systems, or within organizations that benefit from the status quo. Patients and taxpayers often feel the effects of these policies without ever seeing how or why choices were made.

Hyde sets out a clear mission for the podcast: to bring transparency, accountability, and intellectual clarity to healthcare policy discussions. He describes the kinds of guests the show will feature, including policy experts, economists, and analysts, and outlines the core questions that will shape each episode. These include how incentives drive behavior in healthcare, why costs keep rising, how public programs are structured, and where policy design creates friction or failure.

The episode also establishes what the podcast will not be, it is not about outrage, clickbait, or defending institutions for their own sake. Instead, it aims to create a space for careful, informed, and practical conversations about how the system operates and where reform is genuinely needed. By the end of the episode, listeners have a clear sense of the show's purpose, its audience, and why deeper understanding is a prerequisite for meaningful policy debate.

If you want, I can next tailor these for Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or a website landing page with character limits or SEO framing.