Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Follow Us:
Top Stories

Navigating US Healthcare Changes to ACA, Medicare, Medicaid, and More.

Join Dr. Don Berwick and learn what patients, families, and clinicians need to know about rising costs, coverage changes, and healthcare reform.

News

Navigating US Healthcare Changes to ACA, Medicare, Medicaid, and More.
black and gray stethoscope

The American healthcare system is often described as the most advanced in the world—yet for many people, it feels inaccessible, confusing, and broken. Costs are high, coverage is inconsistent, and patients often feel overwhelmed navigating insurance networks, medical bills, and treatment options. At the same time, the professionals who serve within this system—physicians, nurses, and frontline care workers—are burning out under the weight of rising demands, tightening budgets, and eroding public trust.

And now, a fresh wave of policy changes is adding new layers of complexity.


With major shifts underway in Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies, Medicaid and Medicare funding, and vaccine access policies, the next few years will bring real consequences for patients, families, and clinicians alike. Yet the public conversation often reduces these changes to partisan talking points or political theater, leaving individuals unsure of what they can actually do to protect their health, their finances, and their care options.

That’s why The Unity Forum is proud to host a special conversation on Tuesday, December 16th at 1:00 PM ET with one of the most respected and trusted leaders in American healthcare: Dr. Don Berwick.

You can register to attend the free webinar here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_a9FHFcBAQ9Cf9eXs6egeNg

Dr. Berwick is the founding president of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and the former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). A pediatrician by training and a longtime champion of healthcare reform, Dr. Berwick has spent his career advancing ideas that prioritize patient safety, care quality, and dignity for all.

In this live, 45-minute conversation, we’ll talk with Dr. Berwick about the future of healthcare in the United States—and how each of us can navigate it more thoughtfully, effectively, and humanely.

What This Conversation Will Cover

This isn’t a policy roundtable or a campaign stump speech. It’s a conversation for real people—patients trying to afford their medications, parents navigating confusing care options for their families, and healthcare workers doing their best in a system that often fails to support them.

We’ll ask Dr. Berwick:

  • How can individuals and families prepare for changes in insurance coverage and out-of-pocket costs?
  • What should healthcare professionals know and do as financial pressures begin impacting patient outcomes more directly?
  • What public policies are worth fighting for to create a system that works better for everyone?

Dr. Berwick will share insights not only from his decades of leadership in national health policy but also from his experience as a physician and advocate. He understands both the system and the people in it.

We’ll also take audience questions, offering a rare opportunity to engage directly with one of healthcare’s leading thinkers.

Why This Matters Now

We’re entering a pivotal moment for the future of American healthcare. As political and economic pressures mount, the choices we make—or fail to make—will shape access, affordability, and quality for years to come.

Patients can’t afford to sit on the sidelines. Healthcare professionals need trusted guidance. And all of us, regardless of political affiliation, deserve a system that is navigable, humane, and sustainable.

This episode of The Unity Forum is designed to meet that need: to create space for clear-eyed, constructive dialogue at the intersection of policy, practice, and personal experience.

Join the Conversation

The Unity Forum is a cross-partisan webinar and podcast series powered by Alumni for Freedom & Democracy, created to foster open dialogue, civic engagement, and practical insight on issues that affect us all.

Register for the webinar at: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_a9FHFcBAQ9Cf9eXs6egeNg
Date: Tuesday, December 16, 2025
Time: 1:00 PM ET
Location: Zoom (link provided upon registration)

The webinar recording will be distributed to those who register.

Let’s come together for a conversation that cuts through the noise—and focuses on what truly matters.

Chris Malone is the host of The Unity Forum. Malone is Founder of Fidelum Group and co-author of the award-winning book, “The HUMAN Brand: How We Relate to People, Products & Companies.”


Read More

Medicaid Cuts Could Threaten Key Student Services at IL Schools

Monique McClure is a single parent to four children, two of whom rely on Medicaid-funded school services.

Photo courtesy of Monique McClure

Medicaid Cuts Could Threaten Key Student Services at IL Schools

Medicaid-funded school services are a lifeline and financial necessity for Monique McClure, a single mother of four, and her two children with learning disabilities.

Trent and Trenity, McClure’s 9-year-old twins, participate in a range of Medicaid-funded programs at their respective schools in Belleville, including speech, occupational, and developmental therapies.

Keep ReadingShow less
Focused athlete performing lateral raises with dumbbells, building shoulder muscles in a modern fitness center

This Mental Health Awareness Month essay explores Black masculinity, emotional wellness, HYROX training, therapy, and healing through movement.

zamrznutitonovi / Getty Images

Mental Strength Is More Than Toughness

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, but awareness alone cannot save us. Men of color are already painfully aware that something is wrong. We feel it in our sleeplessness. In our blood pressure. In the marriages that strain under emotional distance. In the fathers who never learned how to say “I’m not okay.” In the sons trying to inherit manhood from men who never permitted tenderness.

The crisis is not merely psychological. It is cultural, historical, spiritual, and physiological all at once. African Americans, particularly men, occupy one of the most paradoxical spaces in American life. We are hyper-visible in sports and entertainment. We are present in politics and public discourse. Yet we are emotionally invisible in matters of vulnerability, grief, anxiety, and depression. We are celebrated for resilience, but denied rest. Our toughness is admirable, while we are punished for transparency.

Keep ReadingShow less
A woman standing in the middle of a food pantry filled with canned and boxed goods and toiletries.

Martha Molina has worked at the Flowing Wells Family Resource Center for 27 years. As its coordinator, she says the center serves about 50 families a month and gives our 160 food boxes. The center is open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday - Friday. / Martha Molina ha trabajado en el Centro de Recursos Familiares de Flowing Wells durante 27 años. Como coordinadora, dice que el centro atiende a unas 50 familias al mes y entrega 160 cajas de alimentos. El centro está abierto de lunes a viernes, de 8 a.m. a 3 p.m.

Shannon Conner

“The Alarm Bell”: Arizona’s Drop in SNAP Participation Signals Potential Nationwide Impact of Trump Legislation

More than 400,000 Arizonans have lost their SNAP benefits since July — the largest decline in the nation by a wide margin — as an underfunded state agency administered changes called for in President Donald Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

The drop represents nearly 47% of the state’s participants in the program better known as food stamps and includes about 180,000 children, according to the Arizona Department of Economic Security, which administers the program.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pregnant woman holding her belly during a prenatal exam.

Americans are questioning whether they have enough resources and support to raise a family in the nation's current political landscape. Julie Roland examines the contradictions of "pro-family" politics in America today and the kind of care mothers are owed to safely and successfully raise children.

Getty Images, Drs Producoes

The Trump Administration Has a Mommy Problem

My mother, who died of breast cancer when I was 18, had me when she was 32. This past Sunday, I turned 33, childless. As I officially fall behind her timeline, with no plans to have kids anytime soon, I look at the landscape of 2026 America and have to ask: Who can blame me?

The decision to start a family is a difficult one. J.D. Vance said on his first day as Vice President that he wants “more babies in America,” but many Americans simply can’t afford to have kids anymore. Perhaps that’s one reason why this administration is offering $5,000 “baby bonuses” just to incentivize birth, while also banning abortion in every way they can. But becoming a mother should be a choice. I was the result of an unplanned pregnancy–and I’m lucky my mom decided to have me and that she turned out to be the best mom ever–but as Miriam Rabkin, MD, MPH, put it: “if you want mom to be happy and healthy, she needs access to contraception so she can choose if and when to get pregnant!” Instead, this administration seems to think that if women won’t elect to have children, they should try paying them, and if that doesn’t work, then they should just force them.

Keep ReadingShow less