Oct 22, 2026 · 36 min · 6 segments
Health care is increasingly at the center of America’s affordability crisis. As families face rising premiums, prescription drug costs, and out-of-pocket expenses, the conversation explores how the…
Debbie CurtisGuest
Rodney WhitlockGuestSo we've got this little election on the horizon, your healthcare gurus, how, how significant of a factor is healthcare in, in the election? Is it, basically another proxy for affordability like gas prices or is healthcare in and of itself and how we deliver healthcare and really pay for healthcare? Is that on the ballot in some way this year? Debbie.
If there are things you can't afford, you're mad right now and you can't afford gas, you can't afford groceries and your health care.
It's the cost of your prescription drugs, the cost of when you go to the doctor, the cost of things that aren't covered.
Because I think even though most of the impacts of that are not yet being felt, the Medicaid cuts that are coming this next year, that has been an underlying theme of a lot of the conversation about this election and how your affordability is even further at risk if change does not come to government.
It's not a dominant role unless you're getting into your diesel F-250 to go to the doctor.
But really, it's not dominant, but it is part of the bigger set of issues that are driving the whole affordability issue.
But there's, I think, a really fascinating little interplay here that if you step back a moment and look at where we are versus where we've been.
Four years ago when we had the last midterm, inflation was more than double what it is today.
Objectively, The costs are, oh, there's no question costs are up, but they're not as much as they were just the last time we had a midterm.
So we've got this little election on the horizon, your healthcare gurus, how, how significant of a factor is healthcare in, in the election? Is it, basically another proxy for affordability like gas prices or is healthcare in and of itself and how we deliver healthcare and really pay for healthcare? Is that on the ballot in some way this year? Debbie.
If there are things you can't afford, you're mad right now and you can't afford gas, you can't afford groceries and your health care.
It's the cost of your prescription drugs, the cost of when you go to the doctor, the cost of things that aren't covered.
Because I think even though most of the impacts of that are not yet being felt, the Medicaid cuts that are coming this next year, that has been an underlying theme of a lot of the conversation about this election and how your affordability is even further at risk if change does not come to government.
It's not a dominant role unless you're getting into your diesel F-250 to go to the doctor.
But really, it's not dominant, but it is part of the bigger set of issues that are driving the whole affordability issue.
But there's, I think, a really fascinating little interplay here that if you step back a moment and look at where we are versus where we've been.
Four years ago when we had the last midterm, inflation was more than double what it is today.
Objectively, The costs are, oh, there's no question costs are up, but they're not as much as they were just the last time we had a midterm.
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