Health Podcast Library

Episode #214 One System, One Goal: Medicare for All with Troy Brennan, Adjunct Professor, Harvard Chan School of Public Health

Feb 11, 2026
29:48

Episode Description

Medicare for all. Not socialized medicine, just a single, government-run system that provides healthcare. 

Is it possible? Or even viable? Our guest this week on the Creating a New Healthcare podcast believes so. In fact, he sees it as the only way to ultimately address the affordability problem with healthcare, particularly for high cost conditions like cancer. In today’s episode, we talk with Dr. Troy Brennan about his book, The Transformation of American Health Insurance: On the Path to Medicare for All, and why a single payer, government system is needed, and how the changes the current administration has made to our public health systems is taking us backwards, not forward.

Troyen Brennan is an Adjunct Professor at Harvard Chan School of Public Health.  He was formerly the Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for CVS Health and Aetna. Before that, he was the President of the Brigham and Women’s Physician Organization and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  He was also Professor of Law and Public Health at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health.  Brennan was formerly the Chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine and is a member of the National Academy of Medicine. He has published six books and over 600 articles. 

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