{"podcast":{"title":"Economics Matters with Laurence Kotlikoff","slug":"economics-matters-with-laurence-kotlikoff-6614501","podcast_index_feed_id":6614501,"rss_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/e8bfdf7c/podcast/rss","website_url":"https://larrykotlikoff.substack.com/","image_url":"https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/staging/podcast_uploaded_nologo/38948887/38948887-1694271789346-097e16ba7f8da.jpg","author":"Economics Matters","episode_count":149,"summary":"Economics Matters is a podcast hosted by Professor Laurence Kotlikoff, one of the most influential economists in the world, a Global Economics Advisor, NY Times Best Selling Author, President of Economic Security Planning, Inc., and Director of the Fiscal Analysis Center. In each episode, Professor Kotlikoff talks to experts about the power of economics in our modern day society. From personal finance and fiscal policy, to social security and income inequality, Economics Matters delves into much of the economic challenges of modern society.","last_synced_at":"2026-09-12T04:22:26.196756+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/economics-matters-with-laurence-kotlikoff-6614501"},"episode":{"title":"The $83 Billion Scam Hidden Inside Medicare (And the Economist Who Proved It)","slug":"the-83-billion-scam-hidden-inside-medicare-and-the-economist-who-proved-it","published_at":"2026-06-09T18:49:48+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/economics-matters-with-laurence-kotlikoff-6614501/the-83-billion-scam-hidden-inside-medicare-and-the-economist-who-proved-it","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/economics-matters-with-laurence-kotlikoff-6614501","url":"https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/economics-matters/episodes/The-83-Billion-Scam-Hidden-Inside-Medicare-And-the-Economist-Who-Proved-It-e3kigar","audio_url":"https://anchor.fm/s/e8bfdf7c/podcast/play/121241371/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-5-9%2F425824615-44100-2-3a75f2794472e.mp3","summary":"What if the system designed to protect your health in retirement was actually engineered (from the inside) to profit from keeping you confused, underserved, and locked out of the care you've already paid for? You've spent decades paying into Medicare. You've done everything right. And yet, as you approach the years when healthcare matters most, the system greeting you on the other side is riddled with hidden traps, gaming, and a funding crisis that Washington refuses to look at directly. In this episode, Professor Kotlikoff talks with his Boston University colleague Dr. Randy Ellis, one of the world's foremost health economists and the architect of the very risk-adjustment formula that determines how much the government pays your Medicare Advantage plan. He literally built it. And he's saying it's being exploited in ways that are costing taxpayers $83 billion a year, with your care hanging in the balance. Time Stamped Learnings: [8:27] Why Medicare Advantage plans are paid billions more than they should be, and how insurance companies game the diagnostic coding system to pocket the difference [9:00] The "cherry-picking" crisis nobody in Washington wants to admit: how private health plans are specifically designed to attract healthy enrollees and quietly push sick ones back into traditional Medicare [10:24] Why the formula running your Medicare payments is 30 years old (built in the 1990s, implemented in 2002, and barely updated since) while insurance companies have decades of new data and technology to exploit every loophole [23:00] What Europe is doing right, and why countries like the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium are delivering better health outcomes at nearly half the cost per GDP [41:14] The age-65 cliff that's trapping older Americans in jobs they d…","meta_description":"What if the system designed to protect your health in retirement was actually engineered (from the inside) to profit from keeping you confused, underserve…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3512,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/economics-matters-with-laurence-kotlikoff-6614501/episodes/the-83-billion-scam-hidden-inside-medicare-and-the-economist-who-proved-it/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/economics-matters-with-laurence-kotlikoff-6614501/the-83-billion-scam-hidden-inside-medicare-and-the-economist-who-proved-it.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}