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The Podcast for Everyone Who Needs Healthcare!
Check out our podcast for stories from the front lines of our broken healthcare system!
Our hosts Gillian Mason and Benjamin Day offer up the latest in healthcare news, politics, activism, and pop culture with a dose of humor and shade. We feature true stories from the dystopian capitalist hellscape that is US healthcare and honest conversations with the people who are fighting to change it!
The Medicare for All Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube Music, and most major podcast platforms.
Find past episodes and more info on how to subscribe here.
Recent Episodes
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The Other Michigan Medicare for All Fight: MIcare, the 50 State M4A Strategy, & the Latest Healthcare News
The national political media has been in a frenzy this week about friend-of-the-pod Abdul El-Sayed’s Senate primary victory in Michigan! Sayed made Medicare for All the centerpiece of his campaign, and at the polls, over 700,000 Michiganders got behind that vision of healthcare justice. But there’s another Medicare for All story unfolding in Michigan – the campaign to win a statewide universal healthcare system in Michigan as a stepping stone to national Medicare for All.…
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What We Do In the Shadows: The Medicare for All Shadow Hearing & the Latest Healthcare News
When the U.S. Congress wants to get together, they don’t just check the shared Google calendar for a time when nobody’s using the House floor. Scheduling when or if a bill will ever get discussed or voted on is entirely up to the majority party. These days, that means that lawmakers outside the MAGAverse can’t do some pretty basic parts of their jobs like holding hearings. The Congressional Progressive Caucus has responded with a series…
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When It Hurts to Heal: Moral Injury, Doctors, & the Latest Healthcare News
Today we’re talking moral injury and how it’s impacting our doctors and the healthcare we get from them. What’s moral injury? Well, you may not have heard the term before, but trust us, if you’ve been watching The Pitt, you’ve already gotten a taste! Moral injury is the trauma that happens when someone knows the right thing to do but is prevented from doing it on a regular basis thanks to factors beyond their control.…
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Don’t Mess With Texans: Saving Medicaid & the Latest Live Updates from the Texas Democratic Convention
This episode, we’re live at the Texas Democratic Party Convention, where Gillian is battling heat stroke while talking with folks about why we need Medicare for All and how we’re using grassroots organizing to build the power to win it! In the past, Medicare for All might have been a tough sell in Texas, but things are very different these days, as the Lone Star state turns from red to a distinctly bluish purple and…
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Empire State of Health: The Campaign for New York Health & the Latest Healthcare News
As we record this, the New York Knicks just might be poised to make history and win their first NBA championship since 1973 (Go Knicks!), but we’re here today to talk about a potential win that could be even bigger for New York than the Knicks taking it all… the passage of The New York Health Act! The New York Health Act, currently working its way through the NY state legislature, would guarantee high-quality, comprehensive…
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No Surrender Summer: Cleve Jones, Seven Days in June, & the Latest Healthcare News
The fight for our health is heating up this summer! Across the country, folks are getting ready for a summer of action to demand real justice in our healthcare system. At Healthcare NOW, we’re calling it No Surrender Summer, and it’s all kicking off with Seven Days in June, a national week of action against healthcare cuts. Seven Days In June was conceived by iconic activist Cleve Jones. Cleve is the man who started the…
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Dry Hot American Summer: Water Wars, Health Impacts, & the Latest Healthcare News
We usually stick to the healthcare news here, but this time, we’re covering a story happening right in our own backyard that could have huge public health consequences. Corpus Christi, Texas is about to be the first American city to run out of water, which threatens the health and wellbeing of the entire city, and especially the folks who are already in precarious health situations. Today we’re talking to local activist Isabel Araiza about what’s…
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Healthcare Not Warfare (2026 Edition) & the Latest Healthcare News
Content Warning: This episode is somehow even swearier than usual. War is hell. Mostly because it kills people indiscriminately and disrupts the lives of huge groups of people, but also because it costs so much money that could be spent on saving lives. Now, after a year of hearing that our country is so hard up for money that we need to make massive cuts to Medicaid and other public health programs, we’re at war…
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Primary Care: Abdul El Sayed & Medicare for All on the Campaign Trail
It’s primary season, y’all! Today I’m joined by Abdul El Sayed — doctor, public health expert, and candidate for the Democratic party nomination in Michigan to talk about healthcare in this election and on the campaign trail! To read more about Abdul and the race for US Senate in Michigan, you can check out his campaign page. You can find more information about his book, Medicare for All: A Citizen’s Guide here on Goodreads! Follow…
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The One Where We All Get Professional Help
Friends, I’ve got a question for you: how are you doing these days, mental-health-wise? Sometimes on the Medicare for All podcast we can get so busy edutaining about healthcare inequity that we forget to take a pause to check in and make sure we’re all OK. What’s that you say? You too are feeling a little… unwell these days? Us too! It’s an objectively terrible moment in history, we’re entering life under fascism, and all…
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Florida (Wo)Man Needs Healthcare: An Invitation to Our Conference!
At Healthcare NOW, we’re used to getting push-back from folks who don’t believe in Medicare for All, and we always expect to hear from those folks – but this episode is about something different. When we announced our annual national Medicare for All Strategy Conference is happening this November, we got some push-back – not about our fight for healthcare justice, but about our choice of venue. Some of our supporters were upset that we’re…
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Bots, Trolls, & Haters
Anyone who’s been on the internet and wants to preserve their sanity knows one, eternal truth: Don’t read the comments section. The comments, as we all know, are where our better angels go to die – where we forget our humanity and type out the ugliest, scariest stuff we were apparently thinking all along? Well, today, against our better judgement, we are going to disregard best practice and dig in to what people are saying…
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Health Crisis in Palestine!
:::CONTENT WARNING::: This episode contains graphic discussions of genocide. Here at the Medicare for All Podcast, we are usually focused on the US, but the fight for universal access to healthcare is one that stretches way beyond our borders. Today we take a global perspective and check in with a group of doctors who are putting their lives on the line to address the serious devastation happening right now in Gaza and its impact on…
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Medicaid — They Cut; We Bleed!
We’re talking about Medicaid folks, the public healthcare system meant to be our social safety net for anyone who can’t afford private insurance and doesn’t have access to healthcare from an employer. I’m sure most of you are aware of Medicaid — but what you might not know is just how many of our friends and neighbors land in that safety net every year. Over 70 Million people in this country rely on the Medicaid…
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Resistance 2.0!
Whether you are a party planner or a community organizer, you know that since the pandemic, it has been REALLY hard to get folks out of the house. It makes sense: the news is depressing, our screen-based scrolling culture is alienating, and our politics are polarizing to the point where a casual conversation can easily escalate to throwing hands. That being said, this month has been different! In response to Trump 2.0, we’re seeing an…
Calling All Small Business Owners!
We are working with Senator Ed Markey, ranking member of the US Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, and Representative Pramila Jayapal, lead sponsor of the federal Medciare for All Act, to get a sense from small business owners about the impact that healthcare costs are having on small business. We want to hear how you are coping with trying to sustain your livelihood and your workforce at a moment when the price of providing insurance is rising quicker than most folks can keep up. Our elected officials need to know how the affordability crisis is hurting our local economies, so your voice is critical!
335+ Progressive Organizations Demand Medicare for All!
We've had enough of this country's predatory for-profit healthcare system -- and we're not alone. 335+ organizations from across the US have signed on to the letter we cowrote with our partners in the National Coalition for Medicare for All demanding that our elected officials stop dragging their feet and commit to passing Medicare for All! From national organizations like Indivisible and MoveOn to prominant labor unions like UAW, UE, Actor's Equity, and so many more, these groups represent millions Americans who are ready to fight for real healthcare justice!
When It Comes to Healthcare, We Won't Give Up the Fight!
This is our moment. Healthcare is under attack from all sides, but Americans are more excited than ever about real change in our healthcare system. So here at Healthcare NOW, we're gearing up for a summer of action to demand Medicare for All!
There will be vigils, rallies, delegations, trainings, a huge celebration for Medicare's birthday in July, and even some actions that take less than five minutes! No matter who you are and where you are, there's a way to plug in.
We'll be updating our No Surrender Summer page with more opportunities to join in as they come up!
Struggling to Afford Healthcare?
You Need Medicare for All!
More than ever, folks across the country are struggling to pay for medicine and doctors' visits, while insurance companies get richer by denying us the treatments we need. It's way past time for a change!
The Medicare for All Act, reintroduced in the House of Representatives this session by Rep. Pramila Jayapal and in the Senate by Sen. Bernie Sanders, would mean that all of us -- regardless of income or zip code -- would have access to comprehensive healthcare.
The majority of American voters now support Medicare for All, but Congress hasn't caught up yet. That's why we need to take action.
Want to get involved? You can learn more and contact your legislators to ask them to sign on as cosponsors here!
Our Stories Are Our Power!
Voices of U.S. Healthcare captures the voices of people who have been impacted by our healthcare system - people whose everyday reality has been ignored and silenced for too many years. Healthcare "horror stories" pop up on the news as interest pieces, but inaccessible care, skipped medications, medical debt, and worse have become everyday experiences of the American landscape.
The Voices of U.S. Healthcare database contains stories from across the country that demonstrate the human cost of our for-profit system. You can browse them by state, the medical conditions our storytellers are dealing with, the insurance companies they're fighting, and more.
If you have a healthcare story, we want to hear it! You can write your story down or upload a video, include your name and a photo or remain anonymous, and help us to document just how desperately we need real change!
Join Our Rapid Response Team!
Right now in the U.S., our access to healthcare is under continuous attacks from all sides!
The current administration is aggressively pursuing an extreme, dangerous healthcare agenda: making deep cuts to Medicaid; privatizing Medicare and the VA; denying care to immigrants; and limiting our ability to seek reproductive care, gender-affirming care, and even vaccines. Thes are huge fights, and the stakes are high, but we can't afford to lose.
Join the Healthcare Emergency Action Team to receive email and/or text alerts at critical moments when you can take quick direct action to defend our healthcare!
Sign Up for Updates!
Signing up for Healthcare-NOW's updates is the best way to learn about organizing victories, opportunities to take action, and the latest developments in the movement to win Medicare for All. Your information will never be shared with or sold to any other organization. Your information is private and we plan on keeping it that way!
Find your local group!
Find your local group!
Healthcare NOW is a Proud Member of the National Coalition for Medicare for All!
The coalition includes grassroots organizations, unions, and policy experts -- all united to win Medicare for All! We strategize and take action together to strengthen and grow the movement for healthcare justice, bring new groups into the fight, and build the political power we need to take on Big Healthcare and get profit out of our healthcare system!
