175 - Why Health Insurance Is Becoming Unaffordable for the Middle Class
Sat Jan 31 2026
Vic and Marcus break down the ripple effects of a major winter storm in Nashville before covering a wide range of healthcare and tech developments, including rising ACA premiums as subsidies expire, corporate layoffs and their impact on insurance markets, venture funding for virtual autism therapy, Medicare Advantage rate pressure, insurer earnings declines, strong performance from major health systems, the growth of direct-to-consumer healthcare brands, Amazon and One Medical’s expansion into at-home diagnostics, consolidation in employer-sponsored primary care, the long-term realities of GLP-1 weight loss drugs, new FDA-approved treatments for presbyopia, Tether’s aggressive gold accumulation strategy, rapid advances in AI agents, open-source frontier models, and the economic and societal implications of accelerating artificial intelligence.
Links00:00 - Intro
4:23 - Health Insurance Is Now More Expensive Than the Mortgage for These Americans WSJ
9:09 - Amazon to Lay Off Around 16,000 Corporate Employees WSJ
10:50 - AnswersNow Raises $40M to Expand Access to Autism Therapy MedCity
16:50 - Trump Administration Proposes Keeping Steady the Rates Medicare Pays Insurers WSJ
18:02 - Investors Assumed Medicare Advantage Was Safe Under the GOP. They Were Wrong. WSJ
22:39 - UnitedHealth revenue climbs in 2025, though profit continues to fall Healthcare Dive
23:33 - Elevance Health sets 'prudent' 2026 guidance as it navigates ongoing cost, utilization pressures Fierce Healthcare
25:06 - HCA Healthcare unveils bullish 2026 guidance despite $600M-$900M ACA exchanges hit Fierce Healthcare
26:16 - Cleveland Clinic CEO: Budget overperformance in 2025 paves way for growth Fierce Healthcare
28:02 - Hims & Hers uses another Super Bowl ad to tackle healthcare affordability Fierce Healthcare
33:13 -At-home testing company Reperio teams up with Amazon One Medical on preventive care Fierce Healthcare
34:34 - Employer-focused primary care companies Premise Health, Crossover Health announce merger plans Fierce Healthcare
37:10 - Here’s What Happens when you stop taking Ozempic and Wegovy (Wall Street)
39:28 - Presbyopia Eye Drop From Startup Tenpoint Gets FDA Approval (Medcity News)
41:29 - Tether is buying up to $1 billion of gold per month and storing it in a 'James Bond' bunker CoinDesk
45:26 - The Adolescence of Technology Dario Amodei
51:51 - Clawdbot sheds skin to become Moltbot, can't slough off security issues Register
56:00 - Moonshot AI releases open-source Kimi K2.5 model with 1T parameters Silicon Angle
More
Vic and Marcus break down the ripple effects of a major winter storm in Nashville before covering a wide range of healthcare and tech developments, including rising ACA premiums as subsidies expire, corporate layoffs and their impact on insurance markets, venture funding for virtual autism therapy, Medicare Advantage rate pressure, insurer earnings declines, strong performance from major health systems, the growth of direct-to-consumer healthcare brands, Amazon and One Medical’s expansion into at-home diagnostics, consolidation in employer-sponsored primary care, the long-term realities of GLP-1 weight loss drugs, new FDA-approved treatments for presbyopia, Tether’s aggressive gold accumulation strategy, rapid advances in AI agents, open-source frontier models, and the economic and societal implications of accelerating artificial intelligence. Links00:00 - Intro 4:23 - Health Insurance Is Now More Expensive Than the Mortgage for These Americans WSJ 9:09 - Amazon to Lay Off Around 16,000 Corporate Employees WSJ 10:50 - AnswersNow Raises $40M to Expand Access to Autism Therapy MedCity 16:50 - Trump Administration Proposes Keeping Steady the Rates Medicare Pays Insurers WSJ 18:02 - Investors Assumed Medicare Advantage Was Safe Under the GOP. They Were Wrong. WSJ 22:39 - UnitedHealth revenue climbs in 2025, though profit continues to fall Healthcare Dive 23:33 - Elevance Health sets 'prudent' 2026 guidance as it navigates ongoing cost, utilization pressures Fierce Healthcare 25:06 - HCA Healthcare unveils bullish 2026 guidance despite $600M-$900M ACA exchanges hit Fierce Healthcare 26:16 - Cleveland Clinic CEO: Budget overperformance in 2025 paves way for growth Fierce Healthcare 28:02 - Hims & Hers uses another Super Bowl ad to tackle healthcare affordability Fierce Healthcare 33:13 -At-home testing company Reperio teams up with Amazon One Medical on preventive care Fierce Healthcare 34:34 - Employer-focused primary care companies Premise Health, Crossover Health announce merger plans Fierce Healthcare 37:10 - Here’s What Happens when you stop taking Ozempic and Wegovy (Wall Street) 39:28 - Presbyopia Eye Drop From Startup Tenpoint Gets FDA Approval (Medcity News) 41:29 - Tether is buying up to $1 billion of gold per month and storing it in a 'James Bond' bunker CoinDesk 45:26 - The Adolescence of Technology Dario Amodei 51:51 - Clawdbot sheds skin to become Moltbot, can't slough off security issues Register 56:00 - Moonshot AI releases open-source Kimi K2.5 model with 1T parameters Silicon Angle