Conversations on Health: How We Get There - with Stephani Shelton
Stephani Shelton
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Conversations On Health: How We Get There - with Stephani Shelton is a podcast series about health care, health care systems and the connections we need to make them better. Each podcast will explore a different aspect of health or health care. Or a different country’s health care system as it compares to ours in the US. As a veteran reporter - I want to know why so many Americans still don’t have access to the comprehensive health care so normal in other advanced countries. And if, after the disastrous response to COVID 19, the US and other nations are now prepared for another major public health crisis.
Available episodes
Newest first
Oldest first
Jan 17, 2023
Episode #5: The Continuation of a Conversation with Richard Saltman, PhD, Health Policy Expert
Part 2: We continue to compare the US health care system with those of Sweden and other Nordic and European state-run systems. Does the US really have a mostly private system? Are countries already developing new, hybrid models as the cost of breakthrough medical procedures and designer drugs skyrockets? And can we really compare any single European country to our sprawling land of more than a hundred and 33 million people?
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Dec 21, 2022
Episode #4: A Conversation with Richard Saltman, Phd, Health Policy Expert, Emory University, Atlanta GA
Episode #4: A Conversation with Richard Saltman, PhD, Health Policy Expert
Part 1: We're delving into the mix of private insurers, doctor groups, regional hospital systems, Medicare, Medicaid, the Veterans Health Administration - plus a federal and state public health system- which together are considered the US health "system". How does the US "system" compare to those in Europe and the Nordic countries? You may be surprised at what you hear.
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Nov 17, 2022
Episode 3: Pam’s Healthcare Nightmare
Most of us have had some experience with the mish-mosh of health care in the US which substitutes for a real health system – the European kind you learned about in episodes 1 and 2. Both dealing with health care in the Czech Republic.
But here in the United States – it’s not so simple.
If you’ve had to navigate the maze of doctors, hospitals, health care alliances and insurance in the US – you probably have a horror story. Like my friend Pam Cookson. who lives in St. Augustine, Florida.
Pam’s struggle to get a simple bladder infection treated - something millions of us have also done – is eye-opening. And sadly – likely to sound familiar to many of you.
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Oct 18, 2022
Episode #2: When Writer Steve Fisher Nearly Died in Prague, CZ
You got an overview of the Czech Republic’s health care system in Episode 1. Unlike ours in the US - it’s a centralized system which is relatively similar to those in most European and Scandinavian countries. Every working adult pays into it. And everyone in the country has a similar level of care. So what happens when someone gets really, REALLY sick there? Meet Steve Fisher - an American writer who’s lived and worked in the capital city – Prague - for the past 30 years. A few years ago a freak infection almost killed him. It’s pretty dramatic.
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Oct 5, 2022
Conversations on Health: How We Get There - with Stephani Shelton
Episode 1. Some years ago I discovered that like a lot of you --- I really care about good health. And when COVID first hit us - I – like a lot of you – discovered that the US was woefully unprepared for a major public health crisis. So I set out to do a podcast series about health care - who has it and who hasn't and why. And how we might do better in the US.
I’m starting with a typical European - mostly public health care system in the Czech Republic because I spend a lot of time there. You can compare it to your own experience in our very fragmented PRIVATE system in the US. Like all the European and Scandinavian countries and the United Kingdom – working Czechs and their employers pay a lot in taxes and insurance fees to support most of the overall health care system. It isn’t pure-play socialized medicine as you so often hear about Europe. But the government does pay for the old, the very young and those without jobs. And EVERYONE has similar, solid coverage.
So recently I sat down with an internationally known expert on health care - Dr. David Marx - in his office in Prague. He heads the Department of Public Health of the Third Faculty of Medicine – part of the renown Charles University Medical program. I asked Dr. Marx to explain how the Czech Health System works and how it’s paid for.
In the second episode of Conversations on Health you'll meet a friend of mine who lives and works in the Czech Republic. A few years ago he got very sick and is very, VERY grateful for how well the Czech health system took care of him. I hope you'll enjoy the podcasts which will be quite wide-ranging. And please, DO subscribe so you won't miss any. Thank you so much!
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