Food insecurity could soon worsen for millions of families and result in devastating health outcomes. American Academy of Family Physicians CEO Shawn Martin joins hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter to discuss how the government shutdown is putting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in jeopardy. Beginning on Saturday, Nov. 1, food assistance could end for up to 22 million recipients. Martin and his 128,000 members are calling for bipartisan action to reopen the government and protect families from unnecessary... Read More Read More

Originally broadcast June 5, 2024. A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that several Southeastern states continue to report the highest rates of late-pregnancy fetal death in the country. This is the kind of research that energizes Nurse-Family Partnership supporters to build on their mission to positively impact and transform the lives of first-time moms and their babies through a proven home visiting model. The NFP model connects specially trained nurses with first-time mothers from... Read More Read More

Veterans Day, which is less than a month away, is a time to honor and reflect on those who’ve served. Yet statistics reveal a troubling reality: Veterans are dying by suicide at 1.5 times the rate of the general population. Suicide is now the second leading cause of death among veterans under 45. Craig Bryan, clinical psychologist, Iraq War veteran, and author of “Rethinking Suicide: Why Prevention Fails and How We Can Do Better,” joined hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret... Read More Read More

Originally broadcast October 9, 2025 $44 billion in drugs that help Americans are purchased through a little-known federal discount program called 340B. The program is recognized for successfully helping hospitals, community health centers and others that fund care for low-income patients.   But that program is now facing big challenges from drugmakers, and the current government shutdown has brought new uncertainty. Reporter William Newton of 340B Report tells hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter that the shutdown has delayed approvals... Read More Read More

Originally broadcast October 2, 2025 The federal government is shut down and the ripple effects are being felt. Legislation tied to the budget impasse also means Medicare telehealth flexibilities and the Acute Hospital Care at Home program expired early Wednesday morning. “Most providers and hospital systems are taking calculated risks to continue care during this time, but long-term continuity depends on action by our telehealth champions in Washington to restore these flexibilities and ensure retroactive reimbursement,” says Kyle Zebley, senior... Read More Read More

Originally broadcast Tuesday, September 23, 2025 Happy anniversary to “Conversations on Health Care”! We posted our first program 16 years ago on Sept. 23, 2009. Now, we’re bringing back our first two guests to reflect on where we’ve been and where we’re going in health care. Nancy Pelosi was serving as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and trying to get the Affordable Care Act passed when she joined us on that inaugural show. Today, she continues to serve... Read More Read More

Dr. Wayne Jonas, who formerly led the National Institutes of Health Office of Alternative Medicine, now directs the Healing Works Foundation, which has a mission to “make whole person, integrative care regular and routine.” “The data is very clear: most health does not come from going to your doctor and getting a diagnosis or treatment,” Jonas tells hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter. “The body is continually healing.” Jonas shares the story of a man he calls “Joe,” a grandfather... Read More Read More

Next week former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez will testify in a Senate hearing. The reporters who cover health care in Washington think there could be big revelations about why Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. fired her. Sandhya Raman, health care reporter for Congressional Quarterly and Roll Call, and Michael McAuliff, who covers policy for Modern Healthcare, join our Reporters’ Roundtable. McAuliff says no matter what is discovered during the testimony, Kennedy’s... Read More Read More

Supporters say Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is fulfilling his vision to be “pro-safety,” not anti-vaccine. His recent actions have included restricting COVID eligibility, dissolving expert panels, installing skeptical voices and defunding mRNA development.  Michael Osterholm, Ph.D., director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, is pushing back and says, “I’ve never in my 50 years in public health experienced anything like this in terms of the threat to good public health.”  Osterholm and... Read More Read More

Originally broadcast Wednesday, August 27 Dr. Victor Montori, a Mayo Clinic endocrinologist, internationally recognized researcher, and author of “Why We Revolt,” joins hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter to talk about what it really means to fix a health care system that he believes has lost its way. Montori leads The Patient Revolution, a global movement aiming to make health care more elegant with “no waste or haste, focused on the biology and biography of each person, responsive to each... Read More Read More

Dr. Kenneth Cooper’s FitnessGram is on the ropes. President Trump recently reestablished the Presidential Fitness Test; over 10 years ago, the government replaced the test with Dr. Cooper’s FitnessGram, “the first student fitness report card.” Dr. Cooper has a cautious reaction. “Whether they’re going to be using exactly as the test [in the new process] is not really known. I am delighted to see that they realize the importance of childhood fitness.” To him, it just makes sense to measure... Read More Read More

Originally broadcast August 14, 2025 One in five U.S. adults lives with a mental illness, yet only a fraction of philanthropic dollars goes toward mental health, addiction, and well-being. Alyson Niemann, CEO of Mindful Philanthropy, joined Conversations on Health Care hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter to share how her organization is closing this gap and inspiring bold new investments. “We issued a challenge … to increase the funding to mental health, addiction, and well-being to $35 billion annually by... Read More Read More

Originally broadcast August 7, 2025 Experts who believe in the “food is medicine” concept say recent decisions made in Washington could have a devastating effect. Dr. Hilary Seligman, a nationally recognized expert on food insecurity and health outcomes at the University of California San Francisco, spoke to “Conversations on Health Care.” The interview highlighted that cutbacks to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are projected to reduce federal spending by $186 billion over the next decade. She believes this could... Read More Read More

Americans are living longer for many reasons and experts credit Medicare and Medicaid for some of this success. This week, these federal programs are celebrating their own birthdays. Sixty years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law. However, recent moves are expected to result in decreased enrollment and payments to health care providers. “Conversations on Health Care” hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter speak with Mark Updegrove about this situation. Updegrove is the president and CEO... Read More Read More

“I would have never, ever in my whole life have said, ‘we’re going to cure addiction.’ I think we now have knowledge and tools that could potentially, definitely lead us to a cure for addiction.” —  Dr. Nora Volkow, Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse Dr. Volkow shared her attention-getting belief with “Conversations on Health” at Aspen Ideas: Health. Healthcare providers and society at large have spent decades dealing with substance use disorders and the loss of life has been... Read More Read More

Dr. Betancourt, president of the influential The Commonwealth Fund, is committed to “Affordable, quality health care. For everyone.” Hosts Mark Masselli and Margaret Flinter interviewed him at Aspen Ideas: Health at the Aspen Institute. Here are some of the Fund’s top concerns right now: Dr. Betancourt, the first Latino to lead the Fund, is also proud of health equity as he defines it: “My lived experience informs a lot of my ideas around how our foundation can go forward…it’s about... Read More Read More

President Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” into law on July 4 and now leaders such as Stephanie Carlton are in charge of implementing it. She’s the deputy administrator and chief of staff at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Carlton and the administration see the law’s benefits because Medicaid reimbursement rates “were allowed to go up to commercial rates and states are at varying levels towards that cap. But as we sat back and looked at... Read More Read More

ENCORE – Originally aired November 7, 2024 There’s a lot of attention right now around “super agers.” Yet the facts are that current life expectancy at birth is 74.8 years for males and for females it’s 80.2 years in the U.S. Does it catch your eye when you hear about predictions we’ll be able to live to 100 and beyond? Some researchers are throwing cold water on those notions.  “We’ll be lucky if 5% of the age cohort makes it... Read More Read More

It’s a troubling situation: Nearly one in three high school students report persistent feelings of hopelessness. At the same time, many communities have a lack of mental health professionals to counsel and help young people.Leaders from philanthropy, public health, and private sectors think they have a path to a solution: Youth Mental Health Corps. This program, which launched a year ago, places young adults as mental health navigators in schools and community organizations. These navigators provide peer-to-peer support, connect young people and families... Read More Read More

Description: Dr. Igor Koralnik, the co-director of Northwestern Medicine’s Comprehensive COVID-19 Center, is one of the world’s leading Long COVID researchers. For instance, he’s been involved in a first-of its-kind study that’s giving experts an idea of how Long COVID affects the body by looking through the eyes. Patients at his center receive coordinated care across 14 different specialties to address the many ways Long COVID affects the body. In the second part of our two-part series on Long COVID,... Read More Read More