There is a long-simmering debate in the healthcare industry on whether we should cut out health insurers as the middlemen in paying for checkups, prescription drugs, procedures and more. Despite paying monthly fees, health plan members have to pay thousands in premiums, which can lead to significant out-of-pocket costs for prescription medication and medical visits. The latest episode of the Debunked podcast explores an ongoing debate on this topic led by investor Mark Cuban, which spilled onto social media channel X. The podcast also devotes attention to the turmoil at the Department of Health and Human Services on Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.’s watch, particularly at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. MedCity News Editor in Chief Arundhati Parmar co-hosts the podcast with Samir Batra, managing partner of Health Innovation Pitch.
Arundhati and Samir discuss whether payers are gaming the health system by taking advantage of a public who may not fully understand their health insurance options or the consequences of choosing one plan over another, which can lead to unexpected out-of-pocket costs to pay premiums.
“The system is not set up to support patient-doctor [price] negotiations,” Samir said, pointing to a rising trend of subscription-based primary care services offered through companies like One Medical, which Amazon acquired in 2023.
The conversation then delves into Kennedy’s chaotic leadership at HHS. Despite assurances made to U.S. Senators that Kennedy would leave vaccine recommendations in place, he has made several changes to longstanding vaccine policy. He did away with a recommendation to administer the Covid-19 vaccine to pregnant women and women nursing children under 6 months old. Susan Monarez, the former Senate-confirmed director of the CDC, was ousted over her vaccine policy stance, which prompted other CDC executives to resign in protest. Kennedy also replaced a board overseeing vaccine policy with vaccine skeptics. In 2025, there have been 1,431 confirmed measles cases in 41 states, mostly children — the largest number of cases in a year since 2000, when the disease was declared eliminated in the U.S.
Epic’s announcement at its annual Users Group Meeting that it is developing hundreds of different AI bots to assist clinicians, payers and patients is also highlighted, sparking a discussion on the ramifications of this news, mainly that it could shut out competition from its app marketplace because of its dominance as an EHR vendor.
Listen to the full Debunked podcast here: