PODCAST · news
Code WACK!
by HEAL California
Code WACK! shines a light on our callous healthcare system and what we can do about it. It reveals the healthcare hassles that - far from being just annoying - threaten our peace of mind, our financial security and at times, our very lives. Join us each week as we chat about the challenges that patients and healthcare providers face, amplifying their voices and examining a range of possible solutions, including Medicare for All. Powered by HEAL California, a project of the California OneCare Education Fund, Code WACK! informs the vital discussion of healthcare reform.
Episodes
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Cancer, Copays and the Cost of Staying Alive
This time on Code WACK! In the United States, about 5,800 new cases of cancer are diagnosed each day. That's over 2 million people a year. In fact, excluding the most common skin cancers, nearly four in 10 Americans will develop cancer during their lifetime. Yet cancer is increasingly treatable....
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The Troubling Truth About Memory Care: What Families Need to Know
This time on Code WACK! An estimated 5.7 million Americans are living with dementia in 2026, with that number expected to rise sharply as the population ages. And care isn't cheap. According to US News and World Report, it averages about $7,600 a month, more than $91,000 a year. For many, special...
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Insurers Are Denying Patients Care. What Needs To Change?
This time on Code WACK! We're revisiting part 2 of a powerful 2024 series in honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month this September. What justification did a major insurance company give to repeatedly deny coverage to treat a baby's brain tumor? What can be done to prevent these denials of...
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When Health Insurance Denies a Baby's Cancer Treatment
This time on Code WACK! About 15,000 children and teens are diagnosed with cancer every year in the United States. While survival rates have improved dramatically, cancer remains the leading cause of disease-related death among children. This time on Code WACK!, we're revisiting a powerful 2024...
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Why Labor Unions Are Essential to Winning Medicare for All
This time on Code WACK! Labor unions have spent decades fighting to win good health benefits for their members. And by and large, they have succeeded. The 'union advantage' has been documented. Compared to non-union workers, union workers are more likely to have health insurance coverage… more...
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Labor Day: Why Every Union Negotiation Is Really About Health Care
This time on Code WACK! In honor of Labor Day, we're looking at the powerful connection between work and healthcare in America — and what it means for workers when their health coverage is chained to their jobs. Against the backdrop of our ever-changing economy, we must ask, are the risks of...
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340B: The Drug Discount Patients May Never See
This time on Code WACK! This time, we're taking a closer look at the federal 340B Drug Pricing Program. In a nutshell, the program gives hospitals and clinics that serve low-income and other vulnerable patients deep discounts on prescription drugs. But who really benefits from these discounts?...
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In Debt and Desperate: The Hidden Cost of Getting Sick
This time on Code WACK! What is medical debt? Let's look at what it's not. It's not excessive spending on a pricey vacation, or on designer clothing or expensive watches. Medical debt usually happens when an unexpected accident or illness lands you in the emergency room or the hospital. Focus on...
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'Rationing by Inconvenience:' How Insurers Keep Patients From Care
This time on Code WACK! Got health insurance, but still can't get the care you need? Ever spent hours on hold, battling claim denials, and jumping through hoops just to get the care you already paid for with your insurance premiums? What does it say about our healthcare system when getting...
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Health Coverage Denied? Appeal. You might win!
This time on Code WACK! We're talking about one of the most frustrating experiences in American healthcare - when your insurance company says 'no.' According to Miranda Yaver, an assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of Pittsburgh, insurance denials aren't rare....
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What the New UCLA Report Reveals About California Single Payer
This time on Code WACK! California has debated a single-payer healthcare system for decades, but a new UCLA report commissioned by the California Health and Human Services Agency under Senate Bill 770 could reshape the conversation. In this episode, Michael Lighty, president of Healthy California...
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California's Next Governor Could Transform Healthcare—or Gut It. Becerra vs. Hilton
This time on Code WACK! The upcoming governor's race could shape the future of health care for nearly 40 million Californians. With former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra facing Republican Steve Hilton, the election is raising critical questions about whether California…
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When Your Health Insurance Says 'No' to Your Doctor's Orders
This time on Code WACK! For many Americans getting the right medical care isn't just about what their doctors recommend, it's also about what their insurance company is willing to cover. So what happens when those two don't agree? And why can it be so difficult for patients to fight back?…
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When Insurance Cuts Eating Disorder Care Too Soon
This time on Code WACK! In the United States, as many as 30 million people are affected by eating disorders, including many children and adolescents, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. Eating disorders are serious mental health conditions that affect both mental and physical health. How well…
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We've accepted this healthcare system as normal. Should we?
THIS TIME ON CODE WACK! Is it really normal that the health insurance we pay for often doesn't fully protect us? It may be 'normal' but is it right? Millions of Americans face soaring healthcare costs, coverage denials, medical debt, job lock, and even hospital closures. Have we simply come to...
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Breaking Free From America's Medical-Industrial Complex
This time on Code WACK! America's healthcare system doesn't only hurt us in big ways - like forcing us to choose between getting expensive medical treatments or living sick. Or having to choose the 'least worst,' but always very expensive health insurance policy. It also hurts us in small ways,...
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Why Nursing Home Residents Need the Essential Caregivers Act
This time on Code WACK! Imagine being cut off from Mom - a nursing home resident - for months. You can't bring her favorite foods, or help dress her, hug her, or even hold her hand. For thousands of families during the COVID-19 pandemic, this became a heartbreaking reality. And without new laws,...
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'No Way to Live': The Cost of Nursing Home Isolation
This time on Code WACK! What role do family members and friends play in the lives of nursing home residents? When COVID hit, how were residents impacted when their loved ones were no longer allowed to visit them? Today, we share the story of Melody Taylor Stark, who became an advocate for the...
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Fighting From the Grave for the New York Health Act
This time on Code WACK! What happens when we get too sick to work in a healthcare system that is tied to our jobs? What is the ultimate cost? The story of New York Health Act advocate Mariana Pineda is a case in point. After developing Long COVID, Mariana spent years navigating the same…
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Mariana Pineda: Presente
This time on Code WACK! This is the story of a dedicated advocate, organizer, and powerful voice in the fight for healthcare justice - Mariana Pineda. Mariana was a teacher in the Roosevelt School District, Nassau County, Long Island, until she caught a serious case of COVID complicated by...
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Why Canadians Don't Have to Fight Health Insurers
This time on Code WACK! For millions of Americans, health care means fighting insurance companies, putting off costly treatment, wondering whether the hospital you prefer is in-network, or fearing financial disaster if you get seriously sick. But what if healthcare worked differently? This is…
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The Truth About Canada's Healthcare Wait Times
This time on Code WACK! Today we're taking an inside look at Canada's public health insurance system known as Medicare. What are the biggest misconceptions Americans have about it? What works, what doesn't, and why? And what happens when a public system starts drifting toward privatization? This…
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Too Poor for Insurance, Too Sick to Wait: America's Healthcare Trap
This time on Code WACK! As of spring 2026, enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies have not been extended. Without congressional action, millions of Americans could face significantly higher premiums—or lose coverage altogether. Around 22 million people receive ACA premium subsidies, many of...
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UnitedHealth's Dangerous Takeover of U.S. Health Care
This time on CodeWACK! What if the rising cost of health care — the surprise bills, the shrinking choices, the long waits — weren't random at all, but largely the result of quiet, strategic consolidation happening behind the scenes? The Center for Health & Democracy has been working to reveal…
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Why the Same Drug Costs 3x More (And Who Decides)
This time on CodeWACK! Imagine two patients … same diagnosis, same medication, same country. Each one needs the same prescription. One gets their care through the Department of Veterans Affairs, the other gets it through Medicare. The price of the exact same drug could be half as much for one...
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Designed to Fail: How Insurance Denials Really Work
This time on CodeWACK! Today, we're talking about insurance denials, hidden incentives… and why getting care can feel like navigating a system designed to stop you. Our guest is Bob Coleman, a retired healthcare professional who spent more than 40 years serving veterans through the U.S.…
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Why Employers Are 'Flying Blind' on Healthcare Costs
This time on CodeWACK! Most employers don't actually know what they're paying for healthcare - and employees are paying the price. In this episode of Code WACK!, discover why companies are "flying blind" on healthcare costs, how opaque pricing drives higher premiums, and what this means for your...
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The Health Insurance Black Box: Why Employer Healthcare Costs Keep Rising
This time on CodeWACK! What challenges do employers face when providing health coverage to their employees? And what role do health insurers and Pharmacy Benefit Managers - prescription drug middlemen known as PBMs—play in shaping costs, coverage, and access to care? To find out, we spoke with...
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States Push Back Against Medicaid Managed Care
This time on CodeWACK! Today, most people on Medicaid get their care through private insurers called Managed Care Organizations, or MCOs—like Aetna and UnitedHealthcare. Critics say these companies add layers of bureaucracy that make it harder for patients—most of them low-income—to get care.…
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The Middlemen Making Money Off Medicaid
This time on CodeWACK! Why are there middlemen in Medicaid—and what are they doing to our most vulnerable patients and physicians? How and why are private insurance intermediaries permitted to put profits ahead of patients? A recent report by Physicians for a National Health Program, titled...
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The Hidden Cost of Private Equity Hospital Buyouts
This time on Code WACK! We're taking a closer look at what happens when private equity buys hospitals. Our guest is Dr. Renee Hsia (pronounced "Shaw"). An emergency physician at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, Dr. Hsia explains how patients can be harmed when Wall Street firms take…
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Is private equity in health care killing us?
This time on Code WACK! What happens to staff and patients when private investors buy hospitals to make them more profitable? And why should this concern us all? To break it down, we spoke to Dr. Renee Hsia, an attending physician at San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center and a…
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Insured But Still Can't Afford Care? The Underinsured Crisis
This time on Code WACK! Millions of Americans have health insurance, but still can't afford to use it. So what happens when high deductibles and corporate profit pressures shape the care patients receive? To break it down, we spoke with Dr. Adam Gaffney - a pulmonary and critical care physician,...
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The Deadly Design of U.S. Health Care
This time on Code WACK! Why do Americans live about four years less, on average, than people in similar European countries, despite spending far more on health care? And why are so many dying from illnesses we already know how to prevent or treat? To help us unpack this, we spoke with Dr. Adam...
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Why Insured Americans Still Need Charity Clinics
This time on Code WACK! Why are people in America resorting to receiving medical care in animal stalls - even if they have health insurance? What would it take to make volunteer stopgap clinics unnecessary - and who stands in the way of real reform? To break it down, we spoke with leading...
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The Real Cost of Health Insurance Nobody Talks About
This time on Code WACK! Healthcare premiums aren't the only costs going up. Your pocketbook is also getting hit with higher out-of-pocket costs - like deductibles, co-pays, and coinsurance - often under the radar. How is this hidden cost crisis affecting families - and what can be done about it?…
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Medicare Advantage Is Breaking America's Promise to Seniors
This time on Code WACK! Privatized Medicare now covers more than half of older adults nationwide. But how do Medicare Advantage plans' lower star ratings, narrow networks, and "paper benefits" hit seniors of color hardest-and why are hospitals dropping these plans, leaving patients scrambling for...
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No real choice.' How Medicare Advantage fails seniors
This time on Code WACK! How does Medicare Advantage - also known as privatized Medicare - fail seniors … especially seniors of color? Why do many seniors find they actually have no other choice than an Advantage plan? What's the consequence of that lack of choice? And how do Medicare Advantage...
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Is racism in health care still a problem in 2026? Absolutely.
This time on Code WACK! This time on Code WACK! In celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we're rebroadcasting this episode examining how desegregation shaped the experiences of Black patients in America – and what still hasn't changed. What does racism in medicine look like today? To…
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Revisiting America's racist - and deadly - legacy
This time on Code WACK! In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we're rebroadcasting our Anthem Award–winning episode on one of the most overlooked civil rights battles in American history: the desegregation of hospitals. The episode features Dr. Barbara Berney, a distinguished public health...
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Inside California's Push for Guaranteed Healthcare
This time on Code WACK! As healthcare costs skyrocket and Americans face new coverage threats, California advocates are pushing for something bigger than simple fixes around the edges. We're joined by longtime healthcare organizer Michael Lighty, who breaks down the fight for single payer, what's...
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Why More Americans Want Medicare for All
This time on Code WACK! Today we're talking about rising healthcare costs and the renewed momentum behind Medicare for All. Recent polling shows majority support for the idea across Democrats, independents, and even a notable share of Republicans, even when voters are told it would replace most...
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Aging in place is hard. Could neighbors be an answer?
This time on Code WACK! America is facing a looming crisis in caregiving with an aging population and scarce in-home care resources. Could neighborhood-based care networks offer answers? What becomes possible when they're in place? To find out, we spoke with Dr. Mary-Elizabeth Harmon, a...
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The Caregiving Crisis Is Here - and America Isn't Ready
This time on Code WACK! Suddenly, with little notice, you may find yourself having to step into a caregiving role for a friend or family member. Maybe you already have. It could be an aging parent, an ailing partner or an injured child. What does it really cost—emotionally, physically, and...
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The hidden forces behind skyrocketing health insurance costs
This time on Code WACK! Join us on a deep dive into the hidden forces behind soaring out-of-pocket costs, from rising medical costs to pandemic aftershocks and corporate profit pressures. Our guest, health insurance agent Sherry Davis Johnson, shares eye-opening stories from the front lines.…
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'Widespread Panic:' Rising Premiums and Shrinking Subsidies Explained
This time on Code WACK! We're digging into big questions: Are reduced health insurance subsidies leaving Americans with a bad case of sticker shock? If you're shopping on the ACA marketplace, what should you watch out for before picking a plan? And what happens if you're pre-authorized for...
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Love your Medicare Advantage plan? It does NOT love you back
This time on Code WACK! Will Humana and UnitedHealth Group be found by the courts to have prematurely denied or cut off physician-ordered post-acute care for Medicare Advantage members using AI models with error rates as high as 90%? And could these same AI tools, which over 60% of doctors allege...
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BS, Gaslighting & AI: Demystifying the health insurance denial process
This time on Code WACK! Imagine watching your mom suffer a stroke and two seizures that left her unable to use her right side… and then having her Medicare Advantage health insurer deny coverage for the nursing home care she desperately needs. Now imagine learning that the decision to deny her...
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Profit, Prejudice, and the Price of Care
THIS TIME ON CODE WACK! How do health insurance hassles like denials and preauthorizations exacerbate inequities in our broken healthcare system? How do they rob physicians of precious time caring for patients and even jeopardize their practices? And why are some big insurance companies buying up...
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When Insurers Play Doctor: How Corporate Greed Ties Physicians' Hands and Harms Patients
This time on Code WACK! Why can working as a doctor in America feel like being on a battleground? What questionable tactics are insurance companies using? How are they affecting patients and physicians alike? And when coverage is denied, what can patients do? (See Helpful Links below for tips on...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Code WACK! shines a light on our callous healthcare system and what we can do about it. It reveals the healthcare hassles that - far from being just annoying - threaten our peace of mind, our financial security and at times, our very lives. Join us each week as we chat about the challenges that patients and healthcare providers face, amplifying their voices and examining a range of possible solutions, including Medicare for All. Powered by HEAL California, a project of the California OneCare Education Fund, Code WACK! informs the vital discussion of healthcare reform.
HOSTED BY
HEAL California
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Code WACK! have?
Code WACK! currently has 348 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Code WACK! about?
Code WACK! shines a light on our callous healthcare system and what we can do about it. It reveals the healthcare hassles that - far from being just annoying - threaten our peace of mind, our financial security and at times, our very lives. Join us each week as we chat about the challenges that...
How often does Code WACK! release new episodes?
Code WACK! publishes regularly with 348 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Code WACK!?
You can listen to Code WACK! on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Code WACK!?
Code WACK! is created and hosted by HEAL California.
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