One Big, Fugly Son of a Bill: OBBBA & Your Healthcare

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There’s a recording from 1971. Two men in a room. One of them becomes a felon. The other becomes the president. What they agreed to that afternoon is the reason your insurance just denied your claim. Nobody talks about this tape. We’re going to talk about this tape. Solo episode. Will’s off doing something more fun than healthcare policy. Guardrails off. Twenty-six days ago, a woman named Shmeeka Simpson — who works three jobs, none of which offer health insurance — became one of the first Americans subject to a new rule that decides whether she gets to keep seeing a doctor. She’s terrified. She has good reason to be. She’s been through this before. Not with healthcare. With something else. A 30-year-old in Kearney named Crystal is in a closed loop she can’t think her way out of. You’ll understand when you hear it. Forty percent of rural hospitals in this country are operating at a loss right now. The ones doing the math don’t like what the math is telling them. Neither will you. In this episode: → The two-word phrase a president said in 1971 that built the system you’re living inside → Why the “but Canada has wait times” argument falls apart the second you ask one follow-up question → The Arkansas experiment nobody wants to talk about — and what it predicted with terrifying accuracy → The number that makes Speaker Johnson’s “young men on couches” speech mathematically impossible → The quiet line in the bill that has nothing to do with work requirements and might be the most devastating part → What a television doctor running Medicare means for the woman behind you in line at Dunkin’ → Why this bill got signed on the Fourth of July (the date is not an accident) We’re not doing a policy explainer. We’re doing the autopsy of a 50-year project — and the moment, three weeks ago, when it accelerated into something we haven’t seen before. By the end, you’ll know exactly what to do this week. Whether you’re on Medicaid or not. Whether you’re in a red state or a blue one. Whether you still have Republican friends or — like me — lost most of them somewhere along the way. This one’s for you. Specifically you. Pull up a chair. 🎧 fof.foundation 🦋 Bluesky + Mastodon 📬 Wherever you get podcasts Thanks for living. Thanks for listening. That’s the Overlap.

We spend 17.8% of GDP on healthcare and die three years younger than Canadians.
"But wait times"... sure. You can't file bankruptcy from a wait time.
New episode. Solo. Guardrails off. The 50-year project that built this, and the moment three weeks ago when it got worse.
🎧 fof.foundation

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