Loading summary
Transcript65 lines
- [00:00]
A
I think, you know, these guys believe, like, they're like, in a video game or a TV show, the cameras will stop, and then the world will just go back to what it is, and they've found out, essentially, one small mistake. And look at the explosion in South Carolina of measles. Explosion, a highly contagious disease. If you are in a room with somebody with measles, like, 8 out of 10 people not vaccinated will get it. It's that serious.
- [00:32]
B
Hello, and welcome to the Politics Girl podcast. I'm your host, Lee McGowan.
- [00:36]
C
Let's get into it.
- [00:37]
B
I know there's a ton going on right now. We just had no kings. The war continues. The Republicans are doing everything they can to steal the next election, so they won't be held responsible for those things. But we still need to talk about America's health, because with RFK Jr. Running the department of Health and Human Services, we really are in grave danger. No pun intended. I understand it's difficult to take your eye off the Trump chaos to see what he's doing to the country's health, but we have to look out for our personal health as well.
- [01:05]
C
So to discuss this today, we are
- [01:07]
B
joined by Dr. Anaida Dua, a cardiovascular surgeon, associate professor of surgery, and founder
- [01:12]
C
of Healthcare for Action. Welcome, Doctor. I know you are just in surgery, so thank you so much for joining us.
- [01:18]
A
It's my pleasure. There's nowhere else I'd rather be. Thank you for having me.
- [01:21]
C
Oh, my goodness. Oh, it's such a pleasure. Honestly, I'm going to be honest with you. The doctor literally called me from the floor. She was basically an episode of Grey's Anatomy. She was like, I'm going to be late. We're doing a thing. And I was like, yeah, take your time. She's incredible. So we have to thank her very much for coming. Last time you were here, you said that the people in charge of the country's health were not prepared or experienced enough for the responsibilities that would take care of the American people's health. And you thought that we would suffer because of it. Now we're a year and plus into the Trump second administration. Where do you think we sit right now with our nation's health?
- [01:55]
A
I think we were underestimating how bad things were going to be, unfortunately. You know, people think of health as just me going to the doctor, taking medicine and getting better, and it's not actually that. Interestingly enough, the Maha movement has defined health correctly in that it is holistically how you're doing, whether or not you can make it back and forth from your job safely if the food that you're eating isn't going to give you cancer. These are all things that are part of your health. And of course, part of that is access to actual care and getting the best quality care possible. The sad thing about the Maha movement is that's where they fall off the rails. They get you to, Yes, I agree with. I agree, I agree. And then you're like, wait, what? And so at this point, one year along, where we sit is that the two top people who we're supposed to be taking healthcare advice from in the nation are RFK Jr, who no one should take any advice from healthcare wise, definitively. And the other person that they're trying to jam down our throats now is Casey Means, who is a doctor indeed, in that she's graduated from medical school, but that's about it. And honestly speaking, you mentioned Grey's Anatomy and you're right. Even if you watch that show, you know that all the learning happens when you're a resident.
- [03:08]
C
People need to know that Dr. Casey means, though finishing medical school, never finished her residency. So what you're talking about is we have a person that's acting as, you know, the head of medical. We've got the head of HHS, which is RFK. Then we have Dr. Casey Means, and she is acting like the chief doctor for the country, but she never actually did her residency, so she never finished that full training that real doctors get that we do see in these medical shows where they're learning on the job and seeing how things come up. She did medical school and then left. And I'll be honest, I knew a girl back in the day, when I was a teenager, I knew a girl and I was bartending. I guess I was in my 20s and she was in medical school. But her whole goal was to say she was training to be a doctor while she met a hockey player to marry. That was her whole goal because she didn't want to look like she was shopping for a hockey player husband. And the irony is that girl ended up marrying a Toronto Blue Jay. So she switched major league teams, but she never became a doctor. You know what I mean? Like, just doing the medical school is not enough to be a doctor. So I think it's really important and I think it's really important that people know that these are the people making our medical decisions. I think also that you make such a strong point that, you know, one of the problems with RFK and Dr. Casey means, his Leadership and even the Maha movement in general, is that they get just enough of the story right that we can't completely discredit them. Like you're saying, you know, they have it right. It is a holistic approach that we should be doing. We are less healthy as a country than we need to be. We don't eat enough healthy foods, pesticides can be poisonous, People are obese, we do have higher stress, we don't sleep enough. All these kind of things, alternative therapies, they can work. But none of this is because, say, the CDC does a terrible job and should be like, you know, taken apart and dismantled. It's because we've done a terrible job as a country at prioritizing health over corporate profits.
- [05:04]
A
Correct.
- [05:04]
C
And the Maha movement is almost still doing a corporate profit thing. It's just from the health and wellness side.
- [05:09]
A
That's spot on. I mean, you really have said it beautifully. That's exactly what's happened. You know, it's interesting if you go back in history, insurance companies were actually developed, so to speak, to actually be the quality checkers and the people that ensured that hospitals were not taking advantage of the public and not basically, you know, doing procedures on patients that were inappropriate. And then the insurance companies would come in and supposed to be. But then what happened is they became for profit. And I have no problem. Let me be very clear. With people turning profit and business doing business, I am all for very supportive. This country is run on small businesses, but this is different. There is no business that you walk into where you have no idea. You know, you pick up a lamp to buy, you don't know what the price is, and you go to the front desk and they give you, you know, the lamp for $500 and they give somebody else who walks off the street the lamp for $30. And then they take part of your money that you would pay for it and give it to that person. All that weirdness, all that bureaucracy. And that's really what it is, a bureaucracy war. That' load and money, that's all part of the system. That's the health care system that has been there regardless of who the President was. But what has happened now is Trump comes into power, brings with him RFK people like Casey Means they then say the right things, People get excited about it. Okay, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna get to these root causes and actually they blow everything up. They've unfortunately got us now questioning all of our major institutions. The nih, for example, all this talk about trying to figure out all these problems, but then cut the NIH budget by, like, completely illogical, then saying, you know, the CDC doesn't know what they're saying, and putting all this stuff into people's minds, that Tylenol causes autism, just scaring people, hurting people. And already our healthcare system is bad. So this is like taking us now from bad into the sewer. And that's where we are currently. And so, unfortunately, the healthcare system is in a terrible place. And we are also seeing, and this is really important, that when you have a situation where an entire industry is plagued by a problem, and I can tell you this as a doctor industry, as in healthcare industry, you start to lose the best and the brightest. You start to lose the best and the brightest, not only on the doctor side, on the nurse side, on the healthcare worker side, but also on the administration side, on the person who's going to be my. My secretary here. The entire complex just becomes a gross place that people don't want to work and patients don't want to go to. And that again, leads to the country being more and more unhealthy, which directly correlates with ultimately people having less money in their wallet, their children being sicker than them. And, you know, health is really the canary in the coal mine. If the country is unhealthy and your people are dying, that is a signal that your entire country has a serious problem. And that's unfortunately where we are today.
- [07:52]
C
I mean, I think that's a really good way of looking at it. If your country is unhealthy, healthcare is a first indicator of that. And I think America's been unhealthy in that way for a really long time. We're one of the only countries in the world, definitely of all of our peer nations that don't have some form of universal health care. We spend more money than other countries and we get less care. People die all the time because they can't afford health care. We lose 68,000Americans a year because they couldn't afford their health care. People are paying through the nose. I know our personal insurance went up this year to $4,300 a month. You know what I mean? Like, that's bananas. And that's just what we pay for insurance, not what we pay for medications or out of pocket or, you know, it's. It's extraordinary. And people cannot live like this. But I think there's people like RF junior Want us to believe that we should blame places like the NIH like the cdc. And you look at him and you say, but bro, you've been trying to take the CDC down for years because you're a massive anti vaxxer. And he's then given the power to do that. But that doesn't serve us. It serves sort of his own agenda. I mean realistically, the real reason our system has been so corrupted is, is like you said it, it starts off with the insurance companies there to make sure that the hospitals and the doctors and everything are doing what they're supposed to be doing. Twists into a for profit model. Like if you look at why we're so unhealthy in this country, it is the for profit model. It is capitalism first, right? At the expense of our health. Our food environment was built to maximize profit from big ag to big food manufacturers, not to give the people access to healthy food, but to make money, right? Our healthc care system was now built around for profit insurance companies, big pharma, hospital bills, not the affordability or quality of care. If you even look at the environment we live in, right? The American environment wasn't designed to serve the human, it's designed to serve the car. It's designed to serve the corporation, the factory, right? We don't have walkable cities, we don't have quality public transport. We're not riding our bikes everywhere as they do in other countries in this world. And then the environment itself, right, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we ingest, all our environmental policies, those are meant to protect fossil fuel companies, chemical companies, industrial agriculture, their profit margins, not our health. So I think we have to look at how we built the country in general. And that's why we say like the Maha movement makes sense, their concept makes sense, but the way they're going about it is only making us less healthy.
- [10:20]
A
Exactly. And there is no rhyme or reason for some of the behavioral things that they're doing. So it's making, it's almost like the movement of pigeons. You know, you cannot rely on anything that's actually being said because you don't know where it comes from. And it's not based in science. These are very difficult problems, very difficult problems that very, very smart people have tried to solve incorrectly. And we are at a point now where we just have to clean the slate and start over. There's no point of putting, you know, feces on top of vomit on top of like you're not, you're not doing anything here, you know, and even if the top very most layer looks like it might be okay, there's like all this grime beneath it. And that's unfortunately where we are today. What I will say is this. It is clear as day to me, okay, as a surgeon, how this problem is fixed. I can fix it. It, I can tell you today. And I, I know 10 other people that I could lift directly from the hospital where I'm at and we would walk into an administrative building and be able to fix it. And I don't mean this in the like hugs and kisses Democrat way, where we like doing everybody should get health care, but then we have no idea how we're going to pay for it. And I don't mean this in the Republican way where everyone is dying and the three people that have amazing insurance that make it through. I mean it in the I'll go, I'll say independent, normal, 80% of America way, which is there is a way based on the system that we currently have, where we can pay for people to get basic health care needs. And I can define to you what those basic needs would be. You know, if you go to the ER with a headache, do you need a CT scan of your head? No, you don't. What you need is the doctor to walk in the room, have a 15 minute proper conversation with you. Not with the notes on the computer, not for the 30 seconds like you see on the pit, not like that. A real conversation. They would give you an examination, maybe draw a little blood and then come back and tell you, look, this is probably just a migraine or no, you know what, based on some of the stuff you're saying, you might have a brain tumor. I am going to do that scan and do a proper job. What we have done is created a system that doesn't work for anyone. Totally broken. So what happens if you go to the er? I'll bet you anything, I'll bet you a million dollars, you walk into any ER right day and you say, I have a headache. You will get a head CT scan before you might even see a doctor. Which is crazy and wrong. And that's the fundamental stuff that the Mahab group can be fixing. Because frankly, we clearly know that they don't go by rules and laws. They don't care about the process. So they could say, hey, let's get the right people in the room, let's get the right stuff on the agenda and let's just do it. And America might be behind them, but that's not what's happening. They've got the wrong people in the room talking garbage and garbage in, garbage out. And you know, if you listen to some of the stuff that they say. You could pull any mom from the kindergarten line, and she would tell you the same stuff that Casey means is saying. There's no. Nothing revolutionary here. It's the how. All right, girl. Great. You. You want to get, you know, Cheetos out of our diet? Well, you're not. You can't. You can't touch my Cheetos. I love them. But, you know, let's say you want to try to do that. Fine. What's your plan? You know, oh, let's eat apples. Do you know how much apples cost? Well, how are you going to get these healthy meals? It's impossible. And these same very people are not ready to fund healthy meals in schools for children. So, like, the message is all jacked up and incomprehensible, and ultimately, we're all sitting here dying, literally.
- [13:39]
C
Yeah. I also think that people need to remember that the concept of universal health care shouldn't be either your Republican or your Democratic way, but there is a way to do it, because it's not like we'd be reinventing the wheel. There are 75 or 77 countries that have some form of universal health care. We could do sort of what Apple Computers does and take the best from every single company that's already created something, created our own, and take the best from Canada, a little bit. From South Korea, a little bit. From Germany a little bit, and be like, that works, that works, that works. Because growing up in Canada, I can tell you I was in a car accident at 16. No one was like, oh, boy, that was a really expensive, you know, ambulance trip. Like, I just went to the hospital and had the surgery I needed to have because I was completely broken. It didn't bankrupt my family that I was in that car accident. And yet I would say, don't just say, well, that's better than this one down here in the States, because I got a very serious terminal disease in the States, and the States had done the amount of research on it. Here was the place that I should have got this disease. This was the. The town that had the best doctors. This is where, before the brain drain happened, they were doing all the research. So I always say, like, I got my disease in the right country at the right time, so America is doing something correctly. But how do you blend those two systems? How do you make it so we're not going bankrupt from getting sick? How do you make it so people don't try to. To the hospital after being hit by a car? That's not a civilized nation, right? But none of this is because our scientists or public health experts, these people like you, doctors, who have dedicated their entire life to healing people, to disease prevention, to health, are bad. It's because the people who wrote the legislation, the politics that keep our country running are again, for profit industries, powerful industries. And the people who are writing the legislation are putting their own reelection above our health. And I think that's the problem with America in general, that if you keep putting profit first, everything else will suffer, particularly the health of the people. And then someone like RFK comes along and tells us who to blame it on. And when we blame it on the wrong people, we end up spinning our wheels, solving the wrong problems. And I think that's where we are now this year.
- [15:45]
B
I'm all about quality over quantity, especially in my closet. If it's not well made or versatile, it's not worth buying. In fact, I have a hard time even shopping right now because shopping feels kind of vapid in these troubled times. But that is why I like Quince. The fabrics are elevated, the cuts are thoughtful, and the pricing just makes sense. Quince makes high quality wardrobe staples using premium fabrics like 100% European linen, 100% silk, 100% cashmere, and organic cotton poplin. They work with safe, ethical factories that cut out the middleman. So you're not paying for a brand markup or a fancy retail store. It's just quality clothing that holds up. So season after season, the stitching, the
- [16:22]
C
fit, the fabrics, these are clothes that
- [16:23]
B
you can wear over and over and they will still look good, which is why Quince's clothing is consistently rated 4.5 to 5 stars by their thousands and thousands of customers. These are real people wearing their pieces and loving them. I actually just bought a new oversized V neck Mongolian cashmere sweater for the spring and I am wearing it almost every day. It looks stunning. It's navy blue, which is one of the of the four colors I only wear. And it costs a fraction of what a quality cashmere sweater would normally cost. So be smart in these weird times. Build the wardrobe you actually want that's responsible, affordable and lasting. Right now. Go to quince.com politicsgirl for free shipping and 365 days of returns. That's a full year to wear it and love it. And you will now available in Canada too. Don't keep settling for clothes that don't last. We can't do that anymore. More go to quint.com politicsgirl for free shipping and 365 days of returns. Quint.com politicsgirl this episode of the Politics Girl podcast is brought to you by Wild Grain. Wild Grain is the first bake from frozen subscription box for sourdough breads, artisanal pastries and fresh pastas. All the Items bake in 25 minutes or less and unlike store bought options, Wild Grain only uses simple ingredients you can actually pronounce and a slow fermentation process that's easier on your stomach and richer in nutrients and antioxidants. No preservatives, no shortcuts. Wild Grain boxes are fully customizable. There's a variety box, a gluten free box, a vegan box and a new protein box. They even have their own slow churned fresh butter that pairs perfectly with their breads. Who doesn't love warm sourdough bread right out of the oven? Wild Grain is perfect for easy dinners, cozy weekend mornings with their pastries, or even the perfect grilled cheese with fresh fresh bread. Imagine having fresh bakery quality bread, pastries and pasta at home without any trips to the grocery store. And don't take my word for it, they have over 40,000 five star reviews and have been voted the best food subscription box by USA Today for three years in a row. Right now, for a limited time, Wildgrain is offering our listeners $30 off your first box plus Croissants for Life when you go to wildgrain.com politics politics girl and start your subscription today. That's $30 off your first box and free Croissants for Life when you visit wildgrain.com politics girl and when we blame
- [18:43]
C
it on the wrong people, we end up spinning our wheels, solving the wrong problems. And I think that's where we are now.
- [18:49]
A
Yes, I, I completely agree and I love how you said that about getting it, because I say that all the time. I trained in the British system. I went to medical school in the uk, but I did my residency and all my, you know, other training and I work in the us.
- [19:01]
C
The UK also has a universal health exactly.
- [19:04]
A
That is littered with problems which they openly say, you know, they started in 1947 and they're already kind of out of money and they have problem after problem. The doctors aren't happy, the patients are unhappy. You're right about what you said about the car accident and you know, getting to the hospital. But then when you get there, like are you getting that transfusion? We don't know. Whereas in the us the people who do make it and get in and have the right insurance will get the Right stuff. But then, you know, it's a very small bit of the population. And the way I see it, you know, interestingly, with the, what you said about for profit, like, again, there's nothing wrong with turning a profit. And the, the beauty of the healthcare system for the insurance companies, we can say for people who are in it making profit, there is lots of money to be made. The problem is, the problem is this. It's the story of the golden goose. You know, in the golden goose story, there was a goose that laid a golden egg, and every day it laid one golden egg. And then the farmer got greedy and it said, I'm just going to kill the goose and take all the eggs out. And when he killed it, there were no eggs left and he lost everything. That's the thing with the insurance companies. They've gotten so out of control and greedy and squeezing the American public and their premiums going out of control that now they're on insurance, so they're not making the money anyway. So then what happens is the 10 people left on insurance are paying triple the premiums. But I can't be mean to the insurance companies either alone because the insurance companies also are getting their butts kicked by, you know, you said we don't have universal health care. You're correct, we do. Not in the classic sense. But over 50% of the countries on Medicare or Medicaid, which is our version of, you know, people getting this universal health care. And so what's happening is, you know, the big insurance Blue Cross Blue Shield person is subsidizing the person on Medicare, Medicaid, because those, those bureaucracies are saying, we're only going to give you 80 cents to the dollar or 60 cents to the dollar to the hospital. So the hospital's like, well, we still have to pay for this stuff. Okay, we'll just build Blue Cross Blue Shield triple the amount. Because we don't have price transparency anyway. No one's going to know anything. And then the person who comes off the street with no insurance, they got to be covered, too. So now Medicare and Medicaid and big insurance companies are subsidizing that person. And what the Affordable Care act was meant to do was say, okay, let's get more people in the pot so that there's less cost on everybody. You know, if you and I go out to dinner and we split the bill 5050 and it's $500, that's going to be 250 for both of us. If 10 people go and it's $500, obviously that's less. That's the logic. But in order to get there, you have to focus on everything driving the costs. And one of the huge things in the United States that are not in other countries is, is litigation, tort reform and talking about that aspect of it, you know, having to pay, that's a lot of money. The second thing is again, price transparency. The third thing is with drugs and the drug markup on what we're paying in other countries versus here. And another big thing is the doctors cannot own hospitals, which out the gate may seem really bad. Like doctors cannot own hospitals. Oh, that makes sense because a doctor may start to do things that would hurt a patient to try to get profit, but that's actually not true because they're quality metrics by which you get paid. So a doctor would have to give you the best care, get the best quality, then they would get paid. And we know that doctor driven hospitals do that. And actually in our country today, we let private equity own hospitals, but we don't let doctor own. I mean, so we're just out of control. And the real issue is not that the RFK's and the KC means exist. People like that will always exist. The real problem is us as the American public are ignorant about some of these extremely twisted, turvy, weird things that drive our healthcare system. We don't really know what's wrong, but we just know it's wrong. And so we can't fight it. And when we don't know what's wrong, we are like, oh, let's scapegoat this or scapegoat that. And that's why we're here today.
- [22:36]
C
Yeah. And it's also, I think it goes back to your lamp analogy because I do think if you look at private equity owning hospitals, if you look at the problems that we're dealing with, I do think a lot of it comes back to greed. Because if you look at these insurance companies, their profit margins are so extraordinary. There's a reason that that man who ran UnitedHealth was Luigi. You know what I mean? Like, there's a reason because you deny people. I buy that lamp, whether it's at $500 or $30, I get it home, I plug it in, it doesn't work. And I'm like, well, wait a second, I bought a lamp. But it's like, well, yeah, you bought it, but you didn't buy, you didn't buy a working lamp. You know what I mean? That's what I think a lot of people feel about their insurance. It's like, I finally got cancer, and I'm gonna go with my insurance. And they're like, I actually. You did this thing that now no longer counts. It's why the Affordable Care act was helpful to people, because they got rid of the loophole that allowed insurance companies to go back through your forms and find some little loophole that says we don't have to pay for you anymore. It's like you're paying for this thing that you never end up getting. I also think most people in America understand the concept of insurance. And the Republican Party did a very good job of confusing people when the Affordable Care act came out with their concept of death panels and all their ideas that they. They scared people enough to not treat the Affordable Care act like regular insurance. Because in regular insurance, we drive our cars. Everyone gets insurance. And like you said, if there's two people paying that bill of $500, it's more expensive than if 10 people are paying. If everyone in America had to pay into an insurance policy for if we got sick, our premiums would be lower and we would have like we do with a car insurance. If there's an accident, the money is there to pay for it. But if we don't all have to pay in, then it becomes extraordinarily more expensive for the rest of us. And you have someone like RFK railing on institutions like the cdc, which I should tell people, for years was literally the crown jewel of world health that has done things like raise our health expectancy at, you know, eradicated malaria and smallpox, and we got measles and polio to be considered eliminated. And, you know, it raised Americans life expectancy from 65 to 79 since it was created. But we're blaming organizations like the CDC instead of how we are actually running the country when the cdc, I believe, is just doing what it was supposed to do. The problem is, is that the US Itself consistently underperforms in health metrics when it comes to lifestyle, when it comes to chronic disease. And it doesn't mean that the scientists and the doctors and the public health experts haven't been working so hard to fix that. It's because we aren't meeting these health guidelines because the country's not sat up to do it. And I think that helps to kind of remember that, that we're not living healthy lives by general nature as American people.
- [25:21]
A
It's interesting that, you know, yeah, the insurance companies are doing the thing with the lamp, as you said, but who's letting them? The government who Elected the government, us. There is only one group of people that can stop this kind of torture, robbery, and the situation that we're in, which is basically. I mean, the two factors that stun me. One, that my child today has a lower life expectancy than me. That's out of control. And number two, that the number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States is health care bills. I mean, can you imagine? You get breast cancer and now you're worried about paying your mortgage. And it's like, by the way, it's not like something that happens over a decade, huh? This is over like a couple of months of treatment and boom, you're hit with this big bill that you have to pay. And you know, now you can't get a credit card. Now you can't. I mean, it goes on and on and on from their collection agencies calling. On top of all the horrible things that are happening to you, you have to ask yourself, like, I pay taxes, I go to my job. I'm a good citizen. Do I deserve this? No, I don't. Why is this happening? It's because my elected officials are letting this happen, right? And now it is our job to say this is something that we need to focus down on. Clearly, we all know there's a problem. There is no American that you stop that says our healthcare system is incredible. Nobody says that. We know it's a real issue, but what we don't know is, is now how much of an issue it is. Because even the stuff that was just holding the wall together is gone. Because as you pointed out, we have just lost the cdc, right? We have lost the nih. We've gone away from the who. I mean, we got a real problem.
- [26:51]
C
And yeah, we're not testing food the right way. We're not testing water the right way. You know, people are not hearing about foodborne illnesses. They are not telling doctors to inform their patients when they have recalls. Like, it's a real, real problem.
- [27:05]
A
And people are absolutely. It's not even dying. It' getting like just. Just having your life destroyed. I mean, health is everything. And you only realize that when you don't have it. And it's not just you personally. Tomorrow, you know, your child or your husband or your grandma or whatever goes through something that could be fixed to your point, you have the insurance, you've done all the things you can do right? But somebody can either take advantage of you or can put you through something that's unacceptable or give you information that's wrong. Because now the cdc, you know, used the situation, what's happening with meals or what happened with Tylenol, as I mentioned, I mean, those are horrific things that have occurred and people have not quite grasped how bad it is. You know, the ice stuff is obvious. You can look at it and anybody can see, hey, you shouldn't really be grabbing people off the street in the night like that. That's, that's weird and that's not right. And that's not America.
- [27:52]
C
Yeah, Mask men should not smash your car window and pulling you out of it in an American street.
- [27:56]
A
Not, not the way. My point is just that, like by breaking down these institutions, it's going to take a lot more to come back and fix the them. And we are now in a position where every man is sort of for himself. And I don't think the country really recognizes that yet. But now with the big beautiful bill coming to fruition in the next year, all those rural hospitals shutting down, this nonsense about, hey, we'll just send you $2,000 for your health insurance and then you don't have to. $2,000? Are you serious? Like, this is clearly someone who has not ever paid a hospital bill.
- [28:30]
C
Yeah, no, I told you how much my monthly premiums are.
- [28:33]
A
You're not even going to the cafeteria. Double that.
- [28:36]
C
2,000.
- [28:36]
A
Yeah, I mean, so that, that just tells you the disconnect. But somebody who may not, like, you know, a 23 year old who may have never paid a premium yet, or who may not be in that system and is not sick, may not. Oh, that's a great idea. Just, of course, just give us the money and we'll pay for insurance. Great plan. But it's not. And the reason that we're having this trouble is because the American system doesn't really understand where we are. So the solution again is your politicians. You have to vote and you have to figure out where your politicians stand on healthcare and will they have the balls to go out there, talk about it properly, understand it properly, and then bring the right people in the room. I'm not saying every politician out there needs to understand the intricacies of healthcare. Of course not. But they need to know what they don't know and call forth the right experts. And that's what we've been lacking all of this time. We've got the bureaucrats, we don't have the experts.
- [29:27]
B
Red light therapy is everywhere now because it truly works. They're even putting it in exercise studios. You can get the therapy of red light while you do your Pilates or while you do your yoga. Sean and I have an Irestore face mask bundle as well as an Irestore Elite for hair regrowth. The Irestore Elite is their most advanced laser hair regrowth system that uses 300 lasers and 200 LEDs to help regrow thicker, healthier hair in as little as three months. The Illumina face mask is a lightweight cordless mask packed with two times more LEDs than other top masks. It targets fine lines, breakouts, dullness with triple wavelight therapy. You just need to use it for 10 minutes a few times a week for brighter, smoother skin. And here's the best part. Right now you can bundle and save when you buy both. And Irestore is so confident in their products, they are offering a 12 month money back guarantee. So if you don't get the results you want, you will get a full refund. No awkward questions, just results or your money back. Now, I can't have fancy plastic surgery because of my disease, so I need something that supports anti aging and stimulates collagen and boosts blood flow. I wish I'd had this mask when I was younger because it would have helped reduce blemishes and clear acne and prevent breakouts. Right now, Irestore is kicking off their spring bundle savings with some really big discounts. You can get the Elite and the Illumina face mask bundle at an exclusive deal when you use the code politicsgirl@irestore.com that's politicsgirl@irestore.com and if they ask you how you found out about them, please support the show and tell them we sent you. Give your hair and skin the upgrade they deserve so you can feel confident and refreshed with Irestore. Functional mushrooms seem to be all the hype right now, so I did some research into different companies that were out there and the same name kept coming up.
- [31:11]
C
Mud Water.
- [31:12]
B
Now, there are people out there who are really sensitive to caffeine. People who always feel jittery or anxious after a cup of coffee. Or there are people who love the taste of coffee, but when the caffeine hits them, they feel really shaky and uncomfortable. Sometimes it's not even the caffeine itself that you want. It's the ritual of the coffee. The smell, the taste, the taking a little time for yourself. But if it ends up that you're in an anxiety spiral because of it, it's not really worth it. That's why Mud Water's new low calf coffee is so great for people. It's made with organic arabica beans and functional mushrooms like lion's mane and cordyceps. So you're going to get that rich full body taste that coffee lovers crave. But with only 45 milligrams of caffeine, everything to feel awake and dialed in without feeling jittery or like you're on some sort of emotional roller coaster. If you want something that's even gentler, the original blend is the way to go. It's a coffee alternative made with cacao, Thai turmeric and functional mushrooms. It's warm and grounding with energy but without the buzz. Every single ingredient in mud water is 100% USDA certified organic, non GMO, gluten free, vegan and kosher. There are zero sugars or sweeteners added and it's so easy to make. You just drop Mud Water powder into your favorite mug, pour some water on it and give it a mix. Some people get crazy and they add creamer or honey. If you are ready to try a different ritual, you head to mudwtr.com and grab your starter kit today. Right now, our listeners get an exclusive deal. Up to 43% off your entire order plus free shipping and a free rechargeable frother when you use the code politicsgirl.
- [32:37]
C
That's right.
- [32:38]
B
Up to 43% off with the code politicsgirludwater.com that's M u d w t r dot com and after you purchase, if they ask how you found them, as always, please support the show and let them note that we sent you.
- [32:53]
A
We've got the bureaucrats, we don't have the experts.
- [32:56]
C
So let me ask you about that then because you're one of the founding members of Health Care for Action, which is the largest Democratic health care PAC in the country. I know you have an event with them tomorrow. You'll be doing a speech like what are you planning to tell them? What is Health Care for Actions take on the midterms, right in getting people who understand health care, who understand science, running for office. I know that I'm personally working for Dr. Annie Andrews, who's a pediatrician and a working pediatrician to be in the U.S. senate. But I think we need far more people that actually under understand how to ask the right questions and not let us down when it comes to our health.
- [33:28]
A
Right? So Healthcare for Action was founded in 2022. The original plan was, hey, we need more healthcare people in office, healthcare workers, and this is any type of healthcare workers because healthcare workers are trained in a system and you know, you, you can see it like, we are very empathetic, very loving, but if you mess with our patients, we will flip. It's almost like a mom, you know, like. Like it's all the. And. And I feel that way, too. I've been a doctor for years and years and years, and I feel like that every single day. Not every doctor is perfect, obviously. I'm not trying to say that. But as a system, that's what we strive for, that's what we value. That's our, you know, light that we say patient first. And patient first means every single American that we meet, not just the person on my operating room table. And in order for you to get the best care that you can get, I have to ensure that your kids are safe, that your streets are safe, all these other things. So Healthcare for Action then evolved into, hey, we really need to be just putting people in office who will respect health care as a concern and ensure that people are getting, you know, the healthy lifestyles that they need to be leading and how they're going to pay for it and what things they can do on the intricacy and nuance level to make those changes. So that's what we did. We got a number of Congress people elected. We got a number of local and state and federal people, you know, set. Then this year came along the midterms. To your point. Now, midterms, midterms are not one on foreign policy. See, midterms are one on domestic stuff. To your point, what we talked about earlier, ICE and healthcare, these are the two huge things we've already seen. Look at the upset in Florida, in the Mar a Lago district, right? People are pissed about what's going on. And what we are here to do is say, hey, there's a solution. Don't just throw your hands up. There are hundreds of people in this country, thousands probably, who could serve you. Well, we are going to bring them to the forefront and highlight them. You, Annie Andrews, you just mentioned Denise Powell out in Nebraska. She's a small business owner on top of healthcare, right? Amish Shah, who happens to be an ER doctor. He's in Arizona running Phenomenal candidate for these reasons. Not because he's going to do everything I think and say, but because he can synthesize information and do the right thing for the country. And these are all people who, like, can learn. You know, maybe they have an opinion today and then they get facts and then they're like, oh, actually, maybe it's this. And they change because they serve the public. So Healthcare for Action, the event that we're doing tomorrow actually has Dr. Don Berwick, who used to be the HHS secretary under Obama, as our keynote speaker. Marvin Figueroa, who is the HHS secretary under Spamberger in Virginia. And the reason we invited him specifically is because that's a purple state. So he's going to stand up there and say, listen, for my Republican and Democrat colleagues, how do we do it? And then I am, of course, going to stand up there and explain the state of healthcare in our country and why you need to care. It's not about just the insurance guy. That is a very wrong and narrow concept. You know, coming to the hospital is the last stage. Health is all the stuff that happened before that. And we can get the right people elected who can ensure that that's all taken care of for you.
- [36:25]
C
You know, back in the day, when my grandmother was young, they used to say, you go to the hospital to die. Like, you don't go to the hospital. That's where you go to die. And I feel like it's because you. You want to live this kind of healthy life. You want to be given a world in which your water is safe, your food is safe, you know, you have general checkups, your air is safe, you'd get enough exercise, you know, that kind of thing that you don't end up in the hospital. There will be people like me who get a random disease out of nowhere for no reason. That happens. And I hate the idea that they often put out there. That's like, if you don't want to get sick, just treat yourself better. And I'm like, nope, that's not how it works. Sometimes you just get. Get sick. Right? But also, you want us having more babies. Make that safer for women. You know what I mean? Make it so we're not dying in childbirth. Make it so we don't have a terrible maternal mortality rate in red states, but also watch our vaccines. That's how you start with it. Like I understand it, a Judge just stopped RFK's efforts to overhaul our whole vaccine policy. And just so people know, the Secretary of Health and Human Services had this whole plan to drastically change America's vaccine policy, despite saying he would not do that in his confirmation information hearing and a Federal Court on March 17, I believe, just put a check on those plans. What are your thoughts on that? Because I know that with misinformation and doubt around vaccines being such a prevalent force in America now, it's almost like even though this injunction happened, the damage might be already done. What's Your thought on that?
- [37:48]
A
Most definitely. So, you know, it's not about what you should do or not do. What it's really about is just trust. Like, you know, trust is very, very easy to break. Just one thing that's out of control, and people will say, oh, I just. I want to walk away from this whole thing. Thing, you know. And so what's happened at this point is that judge, for example, he put an injunction down, not interestingly, because of what RFK was saying, but because he didn't follow process. Because when you do process properly, the people who are on this acip, which is basically that board that are deciding about the pediatric vaccine schedule, these are people who are very established and who understand the science. They don't have to have a political leaning. They just have to understand what. What the facts are out there and be able to appropriately discuss. And the judge found that who RFK had appointed after he fired, you know, most of the board did not have that basic understanding. And as a result, you know, this is a disservice, and that's why. And that process was not followed.
- [38:42]
C
I would just want to tell people, the quote from the judge is that the team had abandoned technical knowledge in making their vaccine decisions, and that the decisions were not at all bad based in science. That's a quote.
- [38:55]
A
That's right. Which is a lot for a judge to say. And, you know, people are quick to, oh, that's a Biden appointed. That's not how it works. That is not how it works. Like, you know, especially in the court system, I mean, they have to make a concerted effort to keep their biases out. And it's very important to not do that sort of thing, because if you just come down on a side, you are going to ultimately be wrong. And so in this particular case, what has happened is the damage that was done previously with the distrust has been at least quelled a little bit by this judge saying, listen, listen, there are people still in the country saying, we need to do a little bit further work on this. But, you know, every time that we're focused on rehashing something that we've already put to bed, you're missing something else. You just said yourself, you know, about the disease process that you went through in this country. Right. There are so many problems. Alzheimer's, cancer, trauma, gunshot wounds, you know, like peripheral artery disease, heart attacks, brain tumors that are killing people. We have to spend our time, effort, money, resources, and best minds in these problems that have not yet been solved. Right. We're going backwards 1900. Let's talk about whether or not we should drink dirty water. I think, you know, these guys believe, like, they're like in a video game or a TV show, the cameras will stop and then the world would just go back to what it is, and they've found out, essentially, one small mistake. Take and look at the explosion in South Carolina of measles. Explosion. It's a highly contagious disease. If you are in a room with somebody with measles, like 8 out of 10 people not vaccinated will get it. It's that serious. And. And we know that. And, you know, there was very recently, oh, it was awful. Like maybe a month ago on. On the news, there was a picture of, like, a child, a little boy, 6, 7, 8, around that age, with, like, a feeding tube in, and basically ultimately passed away because he got encephalitis, which is a inflammation in the brain area because he got measles. The fact that it's preventable is just horrific. And so now I think they found out, and you've seen the Trump administration do this where they'll do something dramatic and then they'll immediately back away from it because, oh, this is reality. And that kind of nonsense we have to just cut, because it's really, really hurting us. You know, cutting the NIH budget by 50% again. You're going to find out in 10 years when you get that horrible tumor and there's no solution for it. But you will never have known that had that money not been cut, there would have been a drug for you.
- [41:15]
C
I met a woman at the airport in San Francisco who knew who I was from my kitchen rants. And she was like, we have to leave the country. We're moving to Norway. And I was like, why are you moving to Norway? And she said, my husband was working on a team to cure liver cancer, and they were really close, but they just cut all his funding. So the Norwegian government was like, come over and finish it here. And so they're leaving the country, but it'll be Norway and the European countries that end up having access to that drug when it was really created here. And we won't have it anymore because, like you said, we're cutting things like nih, so we're not going to have those. Those tests. I mean, I know that they have a new MRNA vaccine. I feel like that's for cancer, and it could be really exciting. But then, of course, we have completely demonized MRNA vaccines through the COVID shenanigans and all the misinformation around that. So here we have this exciting new advancement and people are wary of it when they should be thrilled about it.
- [42:13]
A
Right, exactly right. And that is. That is at the root of it, the real sad thing. This is not going to be a dramatic. That's what I sort of meant about the ice thing when I was talking earlier. Like, that's. It's on tv. It's very dramatic. This is not going to be like that. This is going to be a slow.
- [42:28]
C
No, it's happening behind the scenes.
- [42:30]
A
Right, right. But it is deadly, deadly, deadly. It's sort of like high blood pressure. The number one killer in the United States is actually high blood pressure. Silent, deadly killer. We try to manage it, but you can only go after something that you understand and that you know to be a threat. And unfortunately, because this has been such a little slow burn and come across so kind of like stupidly, quite frankly, we've not realized the erosion and we've not realized the impact. You said yourself it's only been a year. I hate to think. And I'm not a hysterical person. Like, I'm not a, oh, my God, the sky is falling. You know, Know when good things are done, I'll say, good things are done. This idea of like, hey, we were going to have Trump Rx with drugs that are again, conceptually wonderful idea. You go to the website and you look at it, there's like, it's. It's not what was sold to us. And that seems it's very rarely what was sold. It was or never. Never what is sold to us.
- [43:19]
C
Yeah, no, I mean, the man is a charlatan. And everyone that he's surrounded by is also a sycophantic charlatan or a money grubber or something thing. They are not there. They can tell you a million things and then not deliver and then blame someone else for it. I think the thing is that you said a lot of these people that are in charge, it's like they think they're playing a video game. And I think that's what we need to keep in mind. Like when people are like, I'm not a doctor, I just play one on tv. It's almost that's how they're acting and accept that it's real life. People that will die and suffer because of it. And this idea that the damage is happening behind the scenes, that it's going to happen in 10 years when you get a tumor that could have been cured, but we actually, you know, stop funding that cure today. That's why we need to get people in office in the midterms and then in 28, who can ask the right questions, who can get these people out of office, who could impeach someone like rfk? Because public health actually is an incredible problem in this country, and we're only going to get sicker and sicker and sicker, and the misinformation doesn't help. I can remember so distinctly when my son was a little guy and Jenny McCarthy was on TV all the time talking about, you know, not getting child support, then they're going to get autism and don't get the vaccines. And I was in the doctor's office weeping. I was like, I don't know what to do. Like, I want to take care of them. Should I. Should I get it? Should I not get it? And they were like, get it, get it. You have to trust me. Like, I really am the doctor, and I understand that you're the mother and you're very nervous, but get it. Like, really, the statistics say this. That's what science is. And the more we learn, the more we do. But these are all proven to be safe. And so to. To. To draw attention away from that. It's really scary. I think for years, everyone thought HRT would give us all breast cancer, and now they're like, oh, maybe we were wrong about that. And all these women suffered unnecessarily because they refused to take it, because they were afraid, right? But that's the thing about science is it's constantly changing. And when you don't understand science and you think, well, they got it wrong there, you're like, that's because science is always evolving. But if something has been a proven case, like the measles vaccine, for however many years, 100 years, you don't reverse that. Like, that's just idiotic. And I think that we need to do better when it comes to our health. So listen, before you go, tell me, as a working surgeon and a doctor and someone who follows the healthcare industry from both the medical field and the political field, what do you want people remembering as they move forward, as they go into this election year, when it comes to our health and when it comes to choosing people who will help
- [45:44]
B
us take care of our health?
- [45:45]
A
Effy, I think the most important thing to remember is that health care is not just about somebody else who is sick. It is about you personally. This is a personal issue. You never know when something terrible is going to happen, so you need to be prepared and you need to have policies in place that protect you. There is, there is no reason for you to be thinking day in and day out about these intricacies. It is important to allow your doctors to do that for you. And your doctors are telling you, you right now, we're the largest back in the nation. We're telling you this is the list of people to go and vote for, because this is the list of people that care about this issue and will actually go and fight for it. We also cannot have people in office anymore who are lifelong politicians who just want to get reelected, who actually have no understanding or interest in actually making any changes. These are the types of behavioral characteristics that you cannot have in a politician anymore. It's not good enough that this person is related to that person that, you know, was. We should never have that. We're not, not. We're not meant to have kings. We're not meant to be a dynasty country. Right? So it's really important for you to get out and vote and for you to question the people in front of you, not just about what they think in terms of their beliefs, but incredibly question them about their character. We need to go back to good human beings who are in politics, which right now brings a chuckle to people. But in the same way that there are amazing people who are lawyers, even though like, you know, the profession is thought of as, oh, naughty, naughty, or there are people in insurance who are genuinely want people to get better. There are people out there, especially now more than ever, who have jumped into politics because they want to make this country better. And unfortunately, we have campaign finance law that requires people to have somewhere between 1 to 7 million dollars to be able to run a good congressional campaign,
- [47:32]
C
which is absurd, ridiculous.
- [47:34]
A
So get out there, put your money out there and pick candidates that you really believe have these two qualities, the fight and the character.
- [47:42]
C
Right. And also know and trust the experts in your life. I think that's the most important thing. Like, I think of someone like Joe Rogan having RFK on and talking for an hour and getting over 2 million views while they both had no idea what they were talking about. Two non doctors talking about how to,
- [47:58]
B
you know, make people healthier.
- [47:59]
C
And I thought, oh my God. At one point, RFK was talking about how he used to, you know, snort cocaine off a toilet seat. And like he knows germs. And I thought, thought, oh my God, oh my God. You know, like, we really have to get to a point where it's not just like, how well do you know me? But it's like, how much do I know and can you trust me with that knowledge? And I think that's what people need to get back to understanding. So please tell people how they can follow your work, how they can see your list of people that might be in their states to vote for who are, are very into the medical fields and how you can get more people to understand science and healthcare and how it's related to November. How can we follow you?
- [48:31]
A
The best way to do it would be to go to Healthcare for action dot com. It's all words. So just Healthcare for action dot com. We have all of our endorsements on, we have a lot of our work on there. And we are accessible to you. We me, I am accessible to you. If you want to talk about something, if you want to, you know what? Because we have to. This is a revolution. We the people need to join forces and bring out our experts and have real conversations. And I am absolutely someone, and so is my entire board who is welcoming of opposite opinions. You know, tell me why you think this way and I will tell you why I think that way and what signs science I'm using to back up what I say. We are not dismissive people. There are absolutely things that are appropriate on the opposite side. But remember, remember, it is always easier to destroy something and raise it to the ground than to build something. And what this administration has made their entire name on is walking around with a wrecking ball destroying things left and right. Nothing was a hundred percent working, working, but there was absolutely stuff like the CDC that was like 90 working. And now you've destroyed it with no plan about how to rebuild it. And that is asinine and backwards that
- [49:44]
C
the east wing might have needed renovations but they tore it to the freaking ground and now we have a hole in the earth. So that's correct. Well done. You know what I mean? And we can't have that with our health care. I want to thank you so much for being here today. I've always loved your work and I
- [49:57]
B
love what you're doing, doing politically.
- [49:59]
C
And we just have to remind people healthcare is not just about someone else getting sick. It's about us. And we have to make sure the right people are out there making decisions on our behalf.
- [50:06]
A
That's correct. Please get out there and vote. Thank you.
- [50:10]
C
Thank you.
- [50:12]
B
So that was Dr. Anaita Dua reminding us that health is the canary in the coal mine. And if anything, people who are worried about people like RFK and Dr. Casey means were underestimating how bad things were going to be, that if anything, the complete destruction of everything from the CDC to the NIH to our relationship to the World Health Organization shows us we need to clean the slate and start over. We can't put a fresh coat of paint over a rotten building. We need to rebuild these trusted organizations and the way we treat the country's health from the ground up. And that's going to start with representatives that understand the importance of health care, of innovation, of investment, and will invest in regaining the nation's trust. Otherwise, the damage that is happening behind the scenes right now is going to affect us for generations to come. I want to thank Dr. Dua for joining us today and you for caring enough about this country to be here. Now go check out healthcareforaction.com and see if there's a candidate you can support who will ultimately support our nation's health. Until next week, PG Out. Before you go, I just want to remind you that the American government is trying to silence any voices that don't toe the party line. They don't care about the truth. They want state run propaganda. Which is why we need to be funding independent media, mainstream media, cable news, social media. They're almost now all exclusively run by a handful of Trump supporting billionaires. So if you respect what I am trying to do here, if you learned something from my podcasts and rants, if you would like to get this podcast ad free delivered directly to your inbox along with my kitchen rants and TV appearances, please consider becoming a member of Podcast Politics Girl Premium by going to politicsgirl.com and signing up. If you're already a premium member of this podcast, thank you so much for your support. And if you're not a member, please consider becoming a patron of my work. If you want real knowledge in a world of lies, it is essential to support those of us out here still trying to bring them to you. There's a link to sign up in the bio of this episode, but also@politicsgirl.com and as always, please like and share these podcasts so we can grow our audience. Because the more people who have access to this kind of information, the better. Better. As always, thank you so much for your time and support. The Politics Girl Podcast is written and performed by me, Lee McGowan and produced and edited by Happy Warrior Entertainment. All rights reserved.