Who the Health Cares? with Prof Michael Sparer

Public Health, Politics, and Money: Lessons from Kentucky and Indiana

Public health funding is often discussed as a matter of budgets and policy. But the real story is about politics, relationships and power. In the aftermath of the COVID-1

Former Health Secretary Umair Shah on AI, MAHA and Leadership Lessons

Public health officials are navigating an increasingly complicated landscape defined by shrinking resources and political polarization. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence

How Decisions Get Made During Public Health Disasters

The work of public health often becomes most visible when our systems are under the greatest strain. From hurricanes to pandemics, crises test not only our ability to res

Public Health, Lost in Translation

The work of the U.S. public health system is invisible to many of us. That’s why public health guidance is often misunderstood – and ultimately mistrusted – by Americans

Public Health Finds a New Beat

Getting public health messaging right isn’t easy. With trust in institutions on the decline and misinformation on the rise, even life-saving information often fails to re

The Hidden Cost of Cutting Medicaid

Medicaid was never intended to be the backbone of the U.S. public health system. But what started in 1965 as a limited health insurance option for a small group of low-in

Ep3-Who Knew? What Health Departments Do

A health department in Kentucky pays half your rent. Another in Oregon runs the county jail's medical system. A third in Iowa partners with businesses to raise wages for

Ep2-Five Trillion on Medical Care, Pennies on Public Health

Why do public health departments have such little power, so few dollars, and are undervalued while their counterparts in the medical care system, especially physicians an

Ep1-Jefferson, Hamilton, and Your Local Health Department

When the Supreme Court in 2022 struck down President Biden's COVID vaccine mandate, it wasn't really about vaccines—it was about who has the constitutional power to issue

Welcome to Who the Health Cares?

America has 3,300 local health departments. They are the backbone of our public health system, yet they are agencies most of us never think about. Until there's a crisis.