All Episodes
Tradeoffs — 384 episodes
Where Did the No Surprises Act Go Wrong? And Can It Be Fixed?
Mental Health Courts Offer People Facing Prison an Imperfect Alternative
A Closer Look at a Widely Despised Health Insurance Policy
Republicans Want to Change How You Buy Health Care
The U.S. Saved $1 Trillion on Health Care. Why Doesn't It Feel Like It?
Call to Mind: The Fifth Branch
Doctors Hated the No Surprises Act. Now Some Are Getting Rich Off of It.
New York Braces for Trump's Big Medicaid Shakeup
Should People Who Want GLP-1s Have to Work for Them?
High Health Care Costs Are Fueling a New Fight Over Old Laws
Trump's Pick to Quiet the Chaos at HHS
Generic Drugs Head to the Supreme Court
Inside the Urgent Care Boom
‘It Sucks’: Spiking Health Insurance Costs Hit Small Businesses
'We Can’t Afford All These Humans’: A Doctor's Take on AI in Health Care
Immigration Enforcement’s Twin Threats to Health Care
As States and CDC Split on Vaccines, What's Next?
A Better Way to Care for Older Adults with Opioid Addiction
Mental Illness Left Their Loved Ones on the Streets. California’s Big Fix Hasn’t Helped
One State's Sprint for its Share of $50 Billion for Rural Health: Part 2
One State's Sprint for its Share of $50 Billion for Rural Health: Part 1
Race to the Bottom: Where's the Cavalry?
Breaking Down Trump’s $50 Billion Rural Health Fund
Race to the Bottom: Hard Bargain
Race to the Bottom: Boom Times
One Doctor’s Crusade to Improve Health Literacy
How Treating Teens’ Trauma Is Stopping Violence in Chicago
One Scientist's Mission to Change How We Prevent Overdoses
A New Kind of Primary Care Comes to America
One Economist’s Plan to Blow Up America’s Health Insurance System
Homeless Camp Sweeps Can Harm Health. Some Cities Are Trying a New Way.
Rising Costs, Fewer Choices: What’s Up with Medicare Drug Plans?
The Quiet Cuts Making ACA Enrollment Harder
Should I Trust AI to Diagnose Me?
Will Trump’s Prescription Drug Deals Really Lower Prices?
How New York Times Columnist Paula Span Navigates ‘The New Old Age’
The Future of Health Care Research: 'Federal Funding Really Is Irreplaceable'
How States Are Reckoning with Republican Health Reforms
BONUS: What Happens if Obamacare Subsidies Shrink?
A Closer Look at a Widely Despised Health Insurance Policy
Why Are People With Mental Illness Starving to Death in Jail?
Obamacare Premiums Are About to Soar. How’d We Get Here?
This Federal Experiment Is Pouring Money into Mental Hospitals. Will It Work?
Getting Health Care to Undocumented Immigrants in Trump's America
Trump Forced Hospitals and Insurers to Reveal Their Prices. What Happened?
How One Company Gamified Health Insurance
The Medicaid Policy Red and Blue States Agree On
One Scientist's Mission to Change How We Prevent Overdoses
A Rural Hospital in Kentucky Prepares for Medicaid Losses
What It’s Like to Be Transgender in Trump’s America
As the Big Beautiful Bill Becomes Law, States Face a ‘Daunting’ Rollout
How Two Supreme Court Rulings Affect the ACA, Planned Parenthood and the Future of Preventive Care
Unpacking the Health Impacts of Republicans' 'Big Beautiful Bill'
Trump’s Policies Could Undermine the Fight to End America’s HIV Epidemic
RFK Jr. Just Replaced the Experts Guiding U.S. Vaccines. Now What?
How Treating Teens’ Trauma Is Stopping Violence in Chicago
Helping Some of America’s Costliest Patients Could Get A Lot Harder
What Cuts to Medicaid and Obamacare Could Mean for Hospitals, Insurers and You
What Happens When Cops Refuse to Respond to Mental Health Calls?
Presenting: First Opinion: The Invisibility of Good Public Health Work
Fighting Measles and Anti-Vax Views in West Texas
What Republican Health Cuts Could Mean for People with Disabilities
Medicaid Work Requirements Are Back. What You Need To Know
Obamacare Heads to the Supreme Court … Again
How RFK Jr. is Upending Public Health
Making Sense of Sweeping Changes at HHS
This Budget Cut Would Save Medicare Patients Money. But Can Rural Hospitals Afford It?
Medicare and Medicaid Under Dr. Oz: What to Expect
The Cost of Cutting NIH Research: Voices from the Frontlines
One Doctor’s Quest to Improve Health Care for People with Disabilities
Lots of Hospitals Are Using AI. Few Are Testing For Bias
Getting Health Care to Undocumented Immigrants in Trump's America
As Trump Targets USAID, What’s at Stake for U.S. and Global Health?
RFK Jr. Wants to Change What Americans Eat. He's Not The First
The Powerful Vaccine Committee RFK Jr. Could Soon Control
RFK Jr. Is Headed to Capitol Hill. A Former HHS Secretary Lays Out the Stakes
Why Many Republicans Think Shrinking Medicaid Will Make it Better
Biden’s Medicaid Director Reflects on Lessons Learned and Worries for the Future
The Fifth Branch: The Last Line of Care
The Fifth Branch: Keeping People Safe
The Fifth Branch: Convincing the Cops
Trump Forced Hospitals and Insurers to Reveal Their Prices. What Happened?
Everyone’s Mad at Health Insurers, But 'There’s Plenty of Blame to Go Around'
Presenting: First Opinion: Mark Cuban
Can the U.S. Put an End to Surprise Ambulance Bills?
What Could RFK Jr. Do As Head of HHS? We Asked Someone Who’s Done the Job
Health Care for Transgender Youth Goes to the Supreme Court
How Did Picking a Medicare Plan Get So Hard?
What the Election Could Mean for Obamacare
3 Health Care Decisions Awaiting the Next President
How New York Times Columnist Paula Span Navigates ‘The New Old Age’
Why Employers Are Turning to Primary Care as Health Care Costs Soar
The Best Way to Fight Meth Addiction? Gift Cards
Race to the Bottom: Where's the Cavalry?
Race to the Bottom: Hard Bargain
Race to the Bottom: Boom Times
How One Company Gamified Health Insurance
‘She Didn’t Want to Die. But She Didn’t Want to Suffer.’
Presenting: Lost Patients: Churn
What to Expect When Medicare and Pharma Finally Negotiate Drug Prices
Hope, Hype or Harm? What We Know About New Cancer-Screening Tools
The Fifth Branch: The Last Line of Care
The Fifth Branch: Keeping People Safe
The Fifth Branch: Convincing the Cops
Tradeoffs Presents: The Fifth Branch
BONUS: The Court’s Big Abortion Decisions Are Out. What Now?
Why Supporting Caregivers Could Make A Difference in Dementia Care
More Hospitals Move to Confront Medical Errors Head On
Ozempic Hype Forces Employer Calls on Obesity Coverage
A New Kind of Primary Care Comes to America
A Telehealth Report Card: What’s Worked and What Hasn’t
How ‘Random Acts of Medicine’ Shape Our Health Care
Is Private Equity Ruining Health Care? It's Complicated.
The Hunt for Lasting Fixes to America’s Medical Debt Crisis
Patients Push to Shape the Future of AI
How Do You Help Patients Who Show Up in the ER 100 Times a Year?
An Insurance Company Bought This Doctor’s Practice. She’s Worried About Her Patients
92,000 Transgender People Took This Survey. Here’s What We Learned
Girls Are in a Mental Health Crisis. What Can Schools Do?
Surprise! Plans To Resolve High Medical Bills Are Still a Mess
One Doctor’s Quest to Improve Health Care for People with Disabilities
Can Washington Make Medicare and Medicaid Work Better Together?
How Patient Privacy Could Hurt AI
How Pushing Hospitals to Give Away More Free Care Could Backfire
‘She Didn’t Want to Die. But She Didn’t Want to Suffer.’
Hope, Hype or Harm? What We Know About New Cancer-Screening Tools
Tradeoffs LIVE! Rooting Out Racial Bias in Health Care AI
5 Ways America's Courts Could Change Health Care in 2024
Why Are People Afraid of the Most Popular Opioid Addiction Treatment?
Tradeoffs in 2024
What to Expect When Medicare and Pharma Finally Negotiate Drug Prices
Losing a Hospital
Presenting STAT’s First Opinion: How Two Abortion Providers Grapple with Their Post-Roe Reality
One Economist’s Plan to Blow Up America’s Health Insurance System
Rooting Out Racial Bias in Health Care AI, Part 2
Rooting Out Racial Bias in Health Care AI, Part 1
The Stories That Made an Impact in 2023
More Hospitals Move to Confront Medical Errors Head On
Can the U.S. Put an End to Surprise Ambulance Bills?
What Brings You In Today?
Growing Pains as California Adds Social Services to Medicaid
Medical or Recreational? States Debate Where Psychedelics Belong
Medicare’s Open Enrollment Mess
Ransomware Attacks: Bad for Hospitals, Deadly for Patients
Ozempic Hype Forces Employer Calls on Obesity Coverage
The 12 Million People Lost in a Maze of Medicare and Medicaid
Girls Are in a Mental Health Crisis. What Can Schools Do?
When Research and the Realities of Practicing Medicine Collide
Better Care at Lower Costs: The Quest for Health Care’s Holy Grail
Hospice Care’s Midlife Crisis
The Push to Bring Medicaid Behind Bars
States’ Uphill Battle to Stop Runaway Health Care Costs
One Doctor’s Crusade to Improve Health Literacy
What to Expect When Medicare and Pharma Finally Negotiate Drug Prices
What White House COVID Coordinator Ashish Jha Learned on the Job
Progress and Pain Points in National Crisis Line's First Year
One Economist’s Plan to Blow Up America’s Health Insurance System
1.5 Million People Have Lost Medicaid. How Worried Should We Be?
‘No Place Else To Go’: Inside a Former Abortion Clinic
The Meteoric Rise of Private Medicare Advantage Insurance
What Gas Stoves, Minimum Wage Laws and the Military Teach Us About Health Policy
Rooting Out Racial Bias in Health Care AI, Part 2
Rooting Out Racial Bias in Health Care AI, Part 1
The Hurdles Facing Black Families Navigating Serious Illness
The ‘Reverse Disparity’ in Psychosis Care
The Wonky Policy That’s Got Hospitals on High Alert
How ‘Random Acts of Medicine’ Shape Our Health Care
The Drugs Changing How We Treat Obesity
Hospice Care’s Midlife Crisis
The Latest Threat to the Affordable Care Act
The Treacherous Transition Awaiting Millions Losing Their Medicaid
When Home Becomes a Hospital
‘A Shocking Amount of Misery’: Medical Debt in America
The Conservative Clash Over Abortion Bans
BONUS: The Return of Our Research Newsletter
SCOTUS Weighs Medicaid Recipients' Right to Sue
The Push to Bring Medicaid Behind Bars
Medicare Director Meena Seshamani on CMS' New Drug Pricing Powers
States’ Uphill Battle to Stop Runaway Health Care Costs
One Doctor’s Crusade to Improve Health Literacy
BONUS: CMS Approves Medicaid Coverage for Inmates
The End of Humira’s $200 Billion Drug Monopoly
Three Health Policy Stories to Watch in 2023
Tradeoffs in 2023
Turning Long-Term Care Into a Long-Term Career
California Bets Big on Housing in Medicaid
The Race to Prepare for Medicare’s New Drug Pricing Powers
Abortion Funds’ Growing Role Post-Roe
What Research Says About a Post-Roe World
Best Health Care Podcasts of 2022
Local Officials Grapple With How to Spend Opioid Settlement Dollars
The Hurdles Facing Black Families Navigating Serious Illness
‘A Shocking Amount of Misery’: Medical Debt in America
Medicare’s Prescription Drug Plan Makeover
Turning Long-Term Care Into a Long-Term Career
The ‘Wild West’ of Health Workforce Policy
The Next Chapter in Democratizing America’s Health Data
The Push to End Cancer Screening Purgatory
California Bets Big on Housing in Medicaid
Presenting The Nocturnists: Hello Shame
The Race to Prepare for Medicare’s New Drug Pricing Powers
Fixing the Obamacare 'Glitch' That Pushed One Couple to Divorce
Too Healthy for the Hospital, Too Sick for the Streets
Has Medicaid Managed Care Delivered On Its Promise?
Health Care’s Climate Change Contradiction
Harm Reduction’s Road From Fringe to Federal Drug Policy
A New Era in the Fight Over Medicaid Premiums
Abortion Funds’ Growing Role Post-Roe
BONUS: Talking 988 with The Takeaway
Answering the Call, Part 3: America's New Crisis Line Goes Live
Answering the Call, Part 2: Struggling to Staff the Nation’s New Crisis Line
Answering the Call, Part 1: America’s New Mental Health Crisis Line
Good Intentions Gone Awry
What Research Says About a Post-Roe World
The Personal and Political Fight to Keep Abortion Legal in Michigan
America’s Chronic Drug Shortage Problem
Pain, Fear and Waste: The Costs of Unnecessary Care
Answering the Call, Part 2: Struggling to Staff the Nation’s New Crisis Line
Can More Time on Medicaid Lower Maternal Deaths?
Fixing the Obamacare 'Glitch' That Pushed One Couple to Divorce
Presenting Color Code: Dismantling Medical Racism Starts in the Classroom
How One Doctor Is Prepping for a World Without Roe
Too Healthy for the Hospital, Too Sick for the Streets
The Sky-High Price of Insulin and What Lawmakers Are Trying to Do About It
How One Alzheimer’s Drug Is Changing the U.S. Drug Approval Conversation
Immunocompromised in a COVID-Weary World
Inside Big Health Insurers’ Side Hustle
Health Care’s Climate Change Contradiction
A New Era in the Fight Over Medicaid Premiums
Presenting Sick: Screaming in the Shower
Pain, Fear and Waste: The Costs of Unnecessary Care
Peter Lee on Obamacare, Covered California and Where We Go Next With Health Care
The FDA Super Bowl
Off Script: One Pharmacist's COVID Woes and Wins
Answering the Call, Part 1: America’s New Mental Health Crisis Line
Harm Reduction’s Road From Fringe to Federal Drug Policy
Medicare’s Unprecedented Alzheimer’s Drug Decision
What's Ahead for Tradeoffs
One Woman’s Year Surviving the Pandemic with a Disability
A New Era of Gun Violence Research
Health Care's Ransomware Wake-Up Call
Presenting An Arm and A Leg: The Insurance Warrior
The Best Health Care Podcasts of 2021
Presenting Playbook Deep Dive: Biden's Abortion Clash with the Catholic Church
Rethinking Telehealth's Role in Treating Addiction
Let’s Make a Deal…on Drug Prices
Has Medicaid Managed Care Delivered On Its Promise?
The Costly, Confusing Medicare Choices Facing 62 Million Americans
Biden's $400 Billion Bet on Caring for Older and Disabled Americans at Home
COVID's Push and Pull on the Public Health Workforce
Can Democrats Reconcile Their Health Policy Differences?
How Do We Keep the Nursing Shortage From Getting Worse?
Inside Big Health Insurers’ Side Hustle
Employers Grapple With Fear, Uncertainty and Vaccine Mandates
The Next Big Challenge to Abortion Rights
Schools Brace For Pandemic-Fueled Mental Health Needs
Catching America's Top Cancer Killer
Calling the Shots: Should Employers Mandate COVID Vaccines?
Presenting The Nocturnists: Stories from a Pandemic
Presenting The Pulse: The Impact of Maternity Ward Closures
Health Care's Ransomware Wake-Up Call
Sacrifices and Small Wins: The Fight Against Rising Gun Violence
One Woman’s Year Surviving the Pandemic with a Disability
Why Millions Could Lose Medicaid Next Year
One County’s 20-Year Effort to Decriminalize Mental Illness
The Aducanumab Aftermath: The Industry
The Aducanumab Aftermath: The Payer
The Aducanumab Aftermath: The Patient
The Aducanumab Aftermath: The Doctor
Babies, Boats & Abstracts: An Insider's Guide to Health Policy Conferences
Drilling Into a Dentist's COVID Roller Coaster Ride
The FDA’s Pressure-Packed Alzheimer’s Drug Decision
Catching America’s Top Cancer Killer
Calling the Shots: Should Employers Mandate COVID Vaccines?
3 Employers, 2 Wonks and 1 Health Insurance Mess (LIVE!)
Presenting The Dose: Asian Americans and the Dual Pandemic
Public Option(al): What Happened to Biden's Big Idea?
Preventing HIV Just Got A Lot Cheaper. What Took So Long?
Losing a Hospital
Biden's $400 Billion Bet on Caring for Older and Disabled Americans at Home
A New Era of Gun Violence Research
No Simple Answers: A COVID Q&A With NYT's Apoorva Mandavilli
One Community Health Center’s COVID Recovery
How Will Biden’s Fix for Child Poverty Affect Kids’ Health?
Data and Door Knocking: One City's Push for Racial Equity in Vaccines
Will the Federal Ban on Surprise Medical Bills Work?
The High Price of Lowering Health Costs for 150 Million Americans
Fixing Health Care's 'Leaky Pipes' Could Save the U.S. $340 Billion
Death, Disease and Denial: Combating COVID in the ER
Xavier Becerra: Get to Know Biden's Pick to Lead HHS
‘The Ten Year War’ Over Obamacare (and the Battles Ahead)
We Need You
New Year, New Episodes!
The Price of Care
Meeting the Mental Health Need
Surprise! SCOTUS Bucks ERISA
On the Job in the ICU
Core to Who I Am
Best of 2020
Oyez! Oyez! ACA!
Straight to the People
Mission Critical
Good Intentions
A Telehealth Checkup
The Opioid Crisis Is Still Here
The Medicare Cliff
Research Corner: Picking Plans
Losing a Hospital
The Other SCOTUS Health Care Case
Debate Do-Over
Shifting Concerns
Biden and COVID-19
Biden and the ACA
Trump and COVID-19
Trump and Reproductive Health
Trump and Medicaid
Trump and Drug Prices
Trump and the ACA
Doctors Coping with COVID, Pt. 2
Doctors Coping with COVID, Pt. 1
An Unpleasant Surprise
Learning As We Go
Tradeoffs Returns
On the Job in the ICU
Meeting the Mental Health Need
Summer Concerns
Listener Mailbag: Your COVID-19 Questions Answered
Taking the Pulse of Insurers
Core to Who I Am
Leaving the WHO
The Price of Care
Research Corner: Masks, Flint and Primary Care
Becoming a Doctor
Navigating Risk
Leap of Faith
Dealing With DACA and COVID
Prognosis: Understanding Silent Spreaders
What Brings You In Today?
Hard to Reach
California Dreamin'
Without Precedent
It Takes A Toll
Home Sweet Hospital
Science Under Pressure
Masking Problems
The Home Run Approach
Bill, Interrupted
What the Fax?
Disease Detectives
The Medicaid Cliff
Return of the Risk Corridors
Primary Care on the Mend
The COBRA Conundrum
Getting on the Bus
(Almost) Everyone Is Doing It
Who Gets Care
What Keeps Me Up at Night
Coronavirus Conversations: Bob Wachter, Pt. 3
After the Hospital
Coronavirus Conversations: Daniela Lamas
Coronavirus Conversations: David Reich
Coronavirus Conversations: Amy Richardson
Coronavirus Conversations: Mayra Jimenez
Coronavirus Conversations: Bob Wachter, Pt. 2
Primary Care in Crisis
Match Day
Coronavirus Conversations: Chris Chen
Coronavirus Conversations: Pam Gueldner
Coronavirus Conversations: Bob Wachter
Coronavirus Conversations: The Social Distance Social
Coronavirus Conversations: Alison Buttenheim
Medicarried Away? (LIVE)
In Short Supply
Primary Concerns
The Price of Innovation
The Sidebar: A Deeper Dive Into RCTs
'Hot Spotters' on Trial
Leap of Faith
The Good Stuff
Feeding the Sick
What Brings You In Today?
The Train Has Left the Station
The Town the Ballpark Is In
Welcome to Tradeoffs