Every problem in American healthcare I have ever tried to fix somehow traces back to something Congress did decades ago and never went back to look at again. Some of it was well-intentioned. Some of it was worse than that. But all of it is still costing patients today.

In this conversation, I sit down with the one person in my life who has seen the American healthcare system from every angle: as a patient, as a mother, as a spouse, and as someone who has watched what really happens inside emergency rooms, operating rooms, and hospital corridors. We walk through the sixty-year-old rule quietly overflowing emergency rooms and prisons with mental health patients, the two-thousand-dollar trap Congress set for disabled Americans, the recent operating room tragedy that should terrify anyone with a surgery coming up, and the one rule change that could quietly fix nine out of ten of these problems overnight.

If you have ever felt like nobody in Washington is on your side, this episode gives you exactly what to say when you pick up the phone.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The 1965 law quietly overflowing your local emergency rooms and prisons with patients who should be getting care instead
• The hidden operating room chain of custody that recently paralyzed four healthy patients going in for a routine surgery
• The single reform every major law in Washington should be required to include from day one that would end the worst legislation without a single new fight

Chapters:

00:00 – Cold Open
00:14 – Why Congress Should Make Us Nervous
00:36 – The 1965 Rule That Broke Mental Health
02:37 – Why Hospitals Turn Away The Ones Who Need Care Most
04:59 – The $900 Million Bribe Vs Our $48 Rule
06:36 – Medicaid Expansion And The 90 Cent Trap
08:15 – The $2,000 Asset Limit That Traps Disabled Americans
09:52 – The Level Playing Field Standard
11:15 – Why We Need To Sunset Every Big Law
14:00 – The Knee Replacement Tragedy Nobody Expected
15:41 – When The Chain Of Custody Breaks
17:08 – Why More People In The Kitchen Means Worse Food
19:35 – The Fine Line Between Safety And Cost
20:35 – When Common Sense Beats Policy
22:04 – The Vecuronium Override That Killed A Patient
24:32 – Why Overrides Should Never Be Solo
25:20 – The Twin Delivery Emergency
26:56 – When The Patient Trusts You Anyway
28:39 – Inside The 340B Program Scandal
31:39 – How 1,800 Cancer Clinics Vanished
34:00 – Why Nonprofit Hospitals Are Sitting On A Fortune
36:24 – Section 6001 And The Physician Ownership Ban
38:48 – Why The 15-Minute Appointment Fails Patients
40:20 – The Epic Mandate That Broke Nursing Too
43:35 – Why Congress Listens To You And Not Me