Hoosier Health Matters

Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 17
Date: 6/19/2026
Title:  Indiana kids lose Medicaid, mifepristone panic, and Sen. Bohacek on medical marijuana

0:00- Intro
2:25- 20% less Indiana children enrolled in Indiana Medicaid today compared to a year ago
4:32- Fairbanks School of Public Health joins with Indiana Department of Health to form an academic health department partnership (yay!)
6:29- Indiana tries to reign in healthcare costs by limiting hospital charges to employer based programs starting July 1
7:57- Andre Carson files bill to make SunBucks a default opt-in program (likely in response to Indiana opting out the last 2 years for reasons that seem nefarious)
10:27- MAHA wants people to eat vegetable but the Department of Agriculture is cutting funding for fresh foods in their programs
11:47- Federal House Budget would cut two extremely successful health outcomes and implementation science programs
13:56- Indiana's attorney general wants to make sure the EPA is monitoring mifepristone in drinking water. Math tells us you would have to drink 233 lifetimes of water in a very short time to achieve 1/1000th of the therapeutic serum level
17:33- FDA mifepristone safety investigation starting in earnest
18:54- Interview with State Senator Mike Bohacek about his bill to legalize medical marijuana in Indiana
32:05- Join Good Trouble for a social meetup Tuesday June 23 at Half Liter in Broad ripple at 6 pm! And watch the US beat Australia in the World Cup!
32:56- Wrap up
Editing assistance on this week's episode provided by Elijah Bosslet
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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 16
Date: 6/5/2026
Title:  "Nuclear family month" executive order 🙄, more vaccine policy chaos, and the political takeover of NIH grants

0:00- Intro
1:57- Infant mortality rate for Indiana steady but remains higher than the national rate
3:11- Indiana sues federal government over a proposed change to marijuana policy
5:10- June declared "nuclear family month" by Governor Braun, despite the fact that families look a lot of different ways, and only 18% of Hoosier households meet this definition
7:02- Many more tick bites this year so check yourself 
7:49- FSSA halts new ABA provider enrollment
8:33- HHS ACIP charter proposal pulled and ACIP is in shambles
10:30- New federal executive order sets the stage for major vaccine schedule changes
12:14- FDA report: no child deaths associated with COVID vaccine
13:03- Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo is the 3rd largest on record (not something to worry about, but not a good situation and any Americans who get ebola will not be treated in the United States (breaking from previous policy)
16:05- National smoking rate down to 9%!
17:13- Proposed rule change will make devastating changes to research grants in the United States (read the statement by Academy Health)
22:37- Go to a pride celebration and join GTC for the annual meeting on Monday June 8th on zoom!
24:23- Wrap up
Editing assistance on this episode by Elijah Bosslet
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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 15
Date: 5/22/2026
Title:  USPSTF turmoil, moms.gov propaganda, and modernizing Indiana's HIV laws

0:00- Intro
1:33- Physician in charge of the Hantavirus oubreak has no public health experience but does have a podcast called "The Erection Connection"
2:30- United States Preventative Services Task Force quietly being dismantled
4:13- Marty Makary resigns as head of FDA- we now have no CDC director, no FDA director, no surgeon general
5:42- Nicole Saphier, nominee for Surgeon General, is a grifter
7:10- NIH doesn't have enough grant managers to pay out all the grants that have been awarded
8:34- Federal government had been holding up immigration visas for doctors but it looks like they are going back on that
9:38- Updates in abortion
12:08- Moms.gov is a really shitty website
14:36- New FSSA plan to attempt to reign in Indian Healthcare costs is a novel attempt to acheive this
18:30- Thoughts about legalizing marijuana in Indiana may be changing
19:57- Interview with Dr. Carrie Foote about the HIV Modernization Movement to reform scientifically outdated laws that criminalize Hoosiers living with HIV. 
35:00- Join Good Trouble for its annual meeting (on Zoom) on June 8!
35:53- Wrap up
This episode was edited by Elijah Bosslet.
Become a member of the Good Trouble Coalition (free!)
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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 14
Date: 5/8/2026
Title:  RFK doesn't want you using antidepressants, armed forces no longer require flu vaccine, and Tracey teaches us all about mifepristone

0:00- Intro
1:33- GTC is looking for an executive director!  More info here
2:11- Casey Means is out for Surgeon General, Nicole Saphier is in
3:20- 988 Hotline for LGBTQ+ youth in crisis, is being reinstated and a JAMA paper shows that it has saved a lot of lives
4:25- RFK, Jr wants people to stop using antidepressants
 5:58- Indiana Medicaid seeking return of $200 million of payments for attendant care providers
7:40- 400 new FSSA workers just to check eligibility with the new rules (holy crap)
9:23- 340B program changes will not apply to FQHC clinics (good news)
10:17- Audit of Marion County Office of Public Health and Safety not good
11:12- Indiana drops involvement in lawsuit regarding section 504 of Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (which is good) but for reasons that aren't great
12:04- Pentagon ends requirement for active duty military to be immunized against flu (which is bad policy)
13:37- COVID vaccine paper that HHS would not publish has been leaked and you can read it here
14:26- Tracey's primer on medication abortion and shenanigans by the 5th circuit court of appeals
 19:17- Ban on medicaid billing for Planned Parenthood up for grabs in Congress
20:09- Happy National Nurses Week!  And get to know the candidates in your district who won their primaries
21:02- Wrap up
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Hoosier Health Matters
Season 2, Episode 13
Date: 4/24/2026
Title:  The PBM black box, Marion County’s dirty air, and the CDC’s vaccine slow-walk

0:00- Intro
2:00- The Good Trouble Coalition is hiring an executive director- look out for an email from GTC!
2:40- Governor Braun moves $200 million to the childcare development fund to provide more vouchers for daycare access
4:19- CDC delays release of MMWR report outlining COVID vaccine efficacy
5:24- Erica Schwartz nominated to run CDC- most reliable people think she is a good choice
6:33- ACIP charter revised by RFK, Jr to allow his "experts" to participate
8:15- RFK, Jr walks back his antivaccine stance to congress
9:54- Trump Administration dropped the court fight over major changes to NIH funding rates
11:15- American Lung Association's State of the Air report demonstrates Marion County failed all measures. Not good.
12:29- Indiana Supreme Court will hear the abortion ban challenge (and skip the appellate court)
13:15- Louisiana case challenging mifepristone now at the 5th circuit court of appeals and plaintiffs have asked for an injunction on its use without face to face visit
14:42- EPA releases list of Human Health Benchmarks for Pharmaceuticals that includes abortion and oral contraceptive medications
17:43- Interview with Veronica Vernon, Pharmacist and Butler Professor, about Pharmacy Benefit Managers and what in the heck they do
35:15- VOTE IN THE PRIMARY
36:06- Wrap up
Become a member of the Good Trouble Coalition (free!)
Donate to support the Good Trouble Coalition
Thanks for listening!
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