As millions of Americans are expected to lose health insurance coverage following federal cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act, states are searching for new ways to prevent medical debt before it starts. In this episode of Tradeoffs, economist Neale Mahoney explains the research into strategies for relief from high healthcare costs and evaluates policy fixes to protect consumers. Guest(s): Neale Mahoney, professor of economics, Trione Director of Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Stanford University. Learn more: Read the full reporting and explore additional resources on our website. Want more Tradeoffs? Join more than 5,500 readers who trust Tradeoffs for clear, deeply reported health policy insights. Sign up for our free weekly newsletter. Tradeoffs helps you cut through the noise with clear, deeply reported journalism on the forces driving health care&#x27;s toughest choices — reporting you won&#x27;t find anywhere else. If our work helps you stay informed, support it with a donation today. This episode was produced by Melanie Evans, edited by Ryan Levi and Dan Gorenstein, and mixed by Andrew Parrella. The Tradeoffs theme song was composed by Ty Citerman. Additional music this episode from Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound. Tradeoffs reporting for this story was supported, in part, by Arnold Ventures. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Millions Expected to Lose Coverage, States Look for New Ways to Prevent Medical Debt

Tradeoffs

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Tradeoffs

## Participants

- **Alyssa Alvarez** (None)
- **David Gottesman** (None)
- **Jenny Gerstorff** (None)
- **Dennis Bronstein** (None)
- **Dan Gorenstein** (None)
- **Neale Mahoney** (None)

## Transcript

In the last year, U.S. health policy has reshaped how millions of people access and pay for care. My name is Alyssa Alvarez and I live in Taos, New Mexico. I am David Gottesman in Nashua, New Hampshire. Changes to Medicaid, vaccine policy, and other federal programs created ripple effects across states, providers, families. My name is Jenny Gerstorff from Seattle, Washington. My name is Dennis Bronstein. I live in Denver, Colorado.

Our role has become even more essential. Helping Tradeoffs listeners make sense of complicated policy through clear, accessible, and rigorous journalism. Tradeoffs gives me insight into a world that can feel really intimidating and hard to grasp. It's a gift to understand what is going on in the world that I'm not familiar with. You provide a lot of good information as far as what's coming down the line with different rules

and how things are changing. See how Tradeoffs is helping people understand this consequential and confusing moment in our new impact report. Visit tradeoffs.org slash impact or click the link in our show notes to check it out. If you hop on social media right now, odds are good you'll find someone upset about being hit with a huge medical bill.

So I just received a $17,000 medical bill. We owe $443.27 for a flu nose swab. Many of us have experienced this shock and panic ourselves. Even with insurance, we can struggle to pay these bills. You know how much gas costs? Like, I don't have an extra $443 laying around to just give you for a nose swab. Will they see it anytime soon? Probably not. I'm just being honest, probably not.

Americans owe more than $194 billion in medical debt, according to one estimate. That is enough to buy nearly every NFL football team. Experts fear far more people will soon end up in medical debt, as funding cuts by Congress are projected to leave millions newly uninsured. People who are struggling with the double whammy of health issues and financial distress, if we can take steps to make their lives easier,

we're having sort of the biggest impact on the people who are most vulnerable. Today, we check in on our nation's medical debt crisis and how researchers and policymakers are looking to minimize its harms. From the studio at the Leonard Davis Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, I'm Dan Gorenstein. This is Tradeoffs.

Was I supposed to be dressed up for this? Yes. Don't you. What the hell? You're a fancy schmancy. This is ridiculous. Don't I look like a tech founder or something? Yeah, you do. But do you want to? No. Neil Mahoney is an economist at Stanford University, out in the land of big tech. Neil has become, over the last two decades, one of the nation's leading researchers and thinkers on protecting consumers ...

With Millions Expected to Lose Coverage, States Look for New Ways to Prevent Medical Debt

Transcript

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With Millions Expected to Lose Coverage, States Look for New Ways to Prevent Medical Debt

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.