# An Unlikely Alliance to Lower Healthcare Costs

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/public-health-on-call-552177/an-unlikely-alliance-to-lower-healthcare-costs
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/public-health-on-call-552177/an-unlikely-alliance-to-lower-healthcare-costs.md
Podcast: [Public Health On Call](https://stenobird.com/podcast/public-health-on-call-552177)
Published: 2026-06-10T10:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://podcast.publichealth.jhu.edu/an-unlikely-alliance-to-lower-healthcare-costs
Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/johnshopkinssph/2026_06_09-PHOC-EP1062-FowlerCannon.mp3?dest-id=1899131
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/public-health-on-call-552177/episodes/an-unlikely-alliance-to-lower-healthcare-costs
Duration seconds: 1059

## Resource

About this episode: Two health policy experts could not disagree more about the Affordable Care Act. Yet they're working together to tackle what they see as a root cause of unaffordability. In this episode: A 1954 change to federal tax code made employer-provided health benefits tax-free, incentivizing employers to cover workers' health insurance—but this policy is one explanation for high healthcare costs for Americans today. Guests: Michael F. Cannon , JM, MA, is the director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute. Elizabeth Fowler , PhD, JD, is a distinguished scholar in Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Host: Dr. Josh Sharfstein is distinguished professor of the practice in Health Policy and Management , a pediatrician, and former secretary of Maryland's Health Department. He served as the Baltimore City Commissioner of Health from 2005 to 2009. Show links and related content: This policy is at the root of unaffordable health care —Washington Post The New Reality Facing Medicare, Medicaid, and the ACA —Public Health On Call (August 2025) Transcript information: Looking for episode transcripts? Open our podcast on the Apple Podcasts app (desktop or mobile) or the Spotify mobile app to access an auto-generated transcript of any episode. Closed captioning is also available for every episode on our YouTube channel. Contact us: Have a question about something you heard? Looking for a transcript? Want to suggest a topic or guest? Contact us via email or visit our website . Follow us: @‌PublicHealthPod on Bluesky @‌PublicHealthPod on Instagram @‌JohnsHopkinsSPH on Facebook @‌PublicHealthOnCall on YouTube Here's our RSS feed Note: These podcasts are a conversation between the participants, and do not represent the…

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/public-health-on-call-552177/episodes/an-unlikely-alliance-to-lower-healthcare-costs/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/public-health-on-call-552177/an-unlikely-alliance-to-lower-healthcare-costs.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.