S2E3: Health Policy Through Grey-Colored Glasses (Dan Gorenstein)

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In today’s episode, we talk with Dan Gorenstein about his experiences in health policy reporting and his podcast, Tradeoffs.

Dan Gorenstein is the Founder, Executive Editor, and Host of Tradeoffs. Dan has extensive experience reporting on the business of healthcare. Prior to Tradeoffs, Dan served as the senior reporter for Marketplace’s Health Desk, spent more than 11 years at New Hampshire Public Radio, and began his career as a journalist at the Chicago Reporter. Join our conversation with him about reporting on the world of health policy through grey-colored glasses! 

Learn more about the Tradeoffs podcast here.

00:00:00 – 00:00:30. Unbiased Estimator Intro.

00:00:31 – 00:01:24. Dan Gorenstein Introduction. Founder, Executive Editor, and Host of Tradeoffs.

00:01:25 – 00:03:48. How does Dan approach learning about the US Healthcare system and go about reporting on it?

• Before founding Tradeoffs, Dan was the senior reporter for Marketplace’s Health Desk where he was covering the business of healthcare

00:03:48 – 00:06:26. How does Dan sort fact from fiction?

00:06:27 – 00:14:40. How did Dan go about learning about the US Healthcare system as an outsider? What were some of the more difficult concepts for him to learn? How did he go about building his network of sources?

• One of Dan’s early sources, and still a valuable source to him now, is Katherine Baicker – Katherine Baicker is a leading scholar in the economic analysis of health policy, she serves as the Dean and the Emmett Dedmon Professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy

00:14:41 – 00:17:41. What is Dan’s and the team’s research process at Tradeoffs?

00:17:42 – 00:20:49. How do Dan and Tradeoffs team pick which topics to cover and when?

• Dan describes Tradeoffs as being more a news organization, a media outlet that doesn’t break news but covers the news, hence putting news into context

00:20:50 – 00:26:43. Common Healthcare topics explained by Dan Gorenstein himself. 

• “Premium”
• “Copayment”
• “Deductible”
• “Cascades of Care”
• “Harm Reduction”

00:26:44 – 00:31:50. What is Dan’s favorite episode of Tradeoffs and what was the most popular with listeners?

• Most popular episode: “A New Era of Gun Violence Research”
• Another popular episode: “Inside Big Health Insurers’ Side Hustle”
• Dan’s favorite episode of Tradeoffs: “Getting on the Bus”

00:31:51 – 00:36:52. Who has helped shape Dan into the reporter/journalist he is today?

• Laura Washington, during Dan’s time at the Chicago Reporter
  • Laura Washington is an In These Times contributing editor, a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times, and a political analyst for ABC 7-Chicago
  • https://inthesetimes.com/authors/laura-s-washington 
• Danielle Gordon, partnered with Dan during his time at the Chicago Reporter
  • https://daniellegordon.me/ 
• Mark Bevis, was the news director for the New Hampshire Public Radio where he hired Dan
  • https://www.cpr.org/author/mark-bevis/page/5/
• Trish Anderton, a feature reporter at New Hampshire Public Radio who helped Dan learn the profession
  • https://www.linkedin.com/in/trishanderton 
• Ira Glass, American public radio personality
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ira_Glass 
• Betsy Streisand, Dan’s first editor at Marketplace
  • https://www.marketplace.org/author/betsy-streisand/ 

00:36:53 – 00:40:52. Dan Gorenstein vs. Ankit. Chicago Bulls All-Time Starting Lineup.

00:40:53 – 00:43:46. What is coming up from the team at Tradeoffs?

• An episode on the Inflation Reduction Act: “The Race to Prepare for Medicare’s New Drug Pricing Powers”
• An episode on cancer screenings and low-value care: “The Push to End Cancer Screening Purgatory”
• An episode on CalAIM: “California Bets Big on Housing in Medicaid”

00:43:46 – 00:45:46. Outro

 

References/Links

• https://tradeoffs.org/
• https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tradeoffs/id1480845603
• https://harris.uchicago.edu/directory/katherine-baicker
• Tradeoffs Episodes Mentioned:
  • “Pain, Fear and Waste: The Costs of Unnecessary Care”: https://tradeoffs.org/2022/03/03/cascades-low-value-care/ 
• • “A New Era of Gun Violence Research”: https://tradeoffs.org/2021/04/01/a-new-era-of-gun-violence-research/ 

• • “Inside Big Health Insurers’ Side Hustle”: https://tradeoffs.org/2021/09/23/inside-big-health-insurers-side-hustle-transcript/ 
  • “Getting on the Bus”: https://tradeoffs.org/2020/04/21/getting-on-the-bus/ 
  • “The Race to Prepare for Medicare’s New Drug Pricing Powers”: https://tradeoffs.org/2022/09/08/inflation-reduction-act-drug-prices/#:~:text=September%208%2C%202022,efforts%20to%20blunt%20their%20impact 
  • “The Push to End Cancer Screening Purgatory”: https://tradeoffs.org/2022/09/29/aca-cancer-screening-coverage/
  • “California Bets Big on Housing in Medicaid”: https://tradeoffs.org/2022/09/22/calaim-california-medicaid-housing-sdoh/