Fred Roeder, health economist and managing director of the Consumer Choice Center, joined the Health Policy Podcast to explain why price transparency remains one of the biggest failures in the U.S. healthcare system. Roeder discussed how opaque hospital pricing leaves patients exposed to unexpected medical bills, even for routine procedures such as MRIs and lab work.

During the conversation, Roeder outlined how high deductibles and cost-sharing mean patients often pay thousands of dollars out of pocket before insurance coverage applies, making price awareness critical. He shared real-world examples showing how the same medical service can vary dramatically in cost depending on the provider, even when quality and equipment are identical.

Roeder also addressed structural issues driving high healthcare costs, including weak enforcement of hospital price transparency rules, administrative overhead, and the misuse of the federal 340B drug pricing program, which allows hospitals to purchase discounted drugs without passing savings on to patients. He argued that these practices contribute to rising premiums, medical debt, and reduced consumer trust.

The episode concludes with practical advice for patients, including how to ask the right questions before scheduling non-emergency care, how to compare providers, and why stronger enforcement of existing transparency laws is necessary to restore consumer choice and accountability in healthcare.

Jared Rhoads, Director of the Center for Modern Health, joins the Health Policy Podcast to discuss why healthcare has drifted away from free-market principles and why reform remains so difficult.

Rhoads explains how healthcare evolved from an individual responsibility into a government-managed system, driving bureaucracy, compliance costs, and reduced innovation. He also outlines how a more market-driven approach could improve efficiency, lower costs, and restore accountability in today's healthcare system.

In this episode of the Health Policy Podcast, Ryan Ellis, president of the Center for a Free Economy, discusses the expiration of COVID-era Affordable Care Act subsidies and why he believes they should not be extended.

Ellis explains how the ACA's design mandates limit competition, drive up insurance premiums, and distort the healthcare market. He also examines the political incentives behind continued subsidy expansion, the role of insurers and hospital systems, and recent examples of fraud within federal assistance programs.

The conversation highlights the need for stronger oversight, work requirements, and long-term structural reforms to restore accountability and sustainability in U.S. healthcare policy.
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In this episode of the Health Policy Podcast, Ross Marchand, executive director of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, examines how the federal 340B drug pricing program has strayed far from its original intent. Marchand explains how a program designed to lower prescription drug costs for vulnerable patients has evolved into a system that allows large, well-funded hospitals to purchase discounted drugs, sell them at full price, and retain the profits—amounting to billions of dollars annually.

The discussion also explores why the Affordable Care Act continues to be treated as politically untouchable, despite market distortions that benefit healthcare providers and insurers while leaving patients and taxpayers behind. Marchand outlines potential paths forward, including meaningful reform of the 340B program or eliminating it entirely to restore transparency, accountability, and fairness in healthcare pricing.

In this intro episode of the ç host Brian Hyde explains why this show exists and what listeners can expect from future conversations. He argues that healthcare policy is among the most complex and consequential areas of public life, yet many of its most important decisions happen behind closed doors in Washington, inside large health systems, or within organizations that benefit from the status quo. Patients and taxpayers often feel the effects of these policies without ever seeing how or why choices were made.

Hyde sets out a clear mission for the podcast: to bring transparency, accountability, and intellectual clarity to healthcare policy discussions. He describes the kinds of guests the show will feature, including policy experts, economists, and analysts, and outlines the core questions that will shape each episode. These include how incentives drive behavior in healthcare, why costs keep rising, how public programs are structured, and where policy design creates friction or failure.

The episode also establishes what the podcast will not be, it is not about outrage, clickbait, or defending institutions for their own sake. Instead, it aims to create a space for careful, informed, and practical conversations about how the system operates and where reform is genuinely needed. By the end of the episode, listeners have a clear sense of the show's purpose, its audience, and why deeper understanding is a prerequisite for meaningful policy debate.

If you want, I can next tailor these for Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or a website landing page with character limits or SEO framing.