{"podcast":{"title":"Public Health On Call","slug":"public-health-on-call-552177","podcast_index_feed_id":552177,"rss_url":"https://johnshopkinssph.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"https://publichealth.jhu.edu/headlines/public-health-on-call-podcast","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/c/2/c/9/c2c94ebeed659e5c5f2e77a3093c12a1/PHOC.jpg","author":"The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health","episode_count":1171,"summary":"Evidence and experts to help you understand today's public health news—and what it means for tomorrow.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-13T20:20:56.289482+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/public-health-on-call-552177"},"episode":{"title":"An Unlikely Alliance to Lower Healthcare Costs","slug":"an-unlikely-alliance-to-lower-healthcare-costs","published_at":"2026-06-10T10:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/public-health-on-call-552177/an-unlikely-alliance-to-lower-healthcare-costs","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/public-health-on-call-552177","url":"https://podcast.publichealth.jhu.edu/an-unlikely-alliance-to-lower-healthcare-costs","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/johnshopkinssph/2026_06_09-PHOC-EP1062-FowlerCannon.mp3?dest-id=1899131","summary":"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…","meta_description":"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…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1059,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/public-health-on-call-552177/episodes/an-unlikely-alliance-to-lower-healthcare-costs/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/public-health-on-call-552177/an-unlikely-alliance-to-lower-healthcare-costs.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}