{"id":174620,"date":"2026-04-24T06:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T06:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/174620\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T06:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T06:16:08","slug":"penn-organizations-host-federal-experts-to-discuss-u-s-healthcare-amid-changing-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/174620\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn organizations host federal experts to discuss U.S. healthcare amid changing environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Penn Political Union hosted two federal health policy experts for a Wednesday discussion about the future of United States healthcare.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The April 22 event featured former Chief Medical Officer of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Lee Fleisher and former U. S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams. The speakers discussed the politicization of public health issues, upcoming Medicaid changes, and artificial intelligence use in healthcare.<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Daily Pennsylvanian, Adams expressed that \u201chealth has always been political, but it\u2019s become much more partisan.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve taken health issues out of the realm of medical and science discussions and put them in the realm of political discussions,\u201d he added. \u201cThat makes it challenging to communicate in this space.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Executive Director of the Penn Center for Public Health Cheryl Bettigole, the event\u2019s moderator, similarly expressed that the U.S. healthcare system has \u201creally gotten stalled\u201d because conversations have become about \u201cthe right says this and the left says this\u201d \u2014\u00a0ensuring that officials \u201ccan\u2019t get anything done.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ahead of the Trump administration\u2019s upcoming work requirements for Medicaid coverage, which are mandated for implementation by Jan. 1, 2027, the speakers discussed how these healthcare changes will impact the American public.<\/p>\n

The Medicaid coverage plan was signed into law in July 2025 as part of the administration\u2019s \u201cOne Big Beautiful Bill Act.\u201d The bill specifically imposes mandates for Medicaid members aged 19 to 64, who are covered only under an expansion to the program.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adams expressed the need for \u201cmore community health workers\u201d and educational opportunities to help individuals understand how the system will change.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re about to be kicked off of your Medicaid if you don\u2019t complete this form and turn it into this office by this date,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Fleisher explained that the bill will create \u201ca huge access problem in the future,\u201d adding that the law should be \u201cimplemented as intended.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the event, Adams suggested that \u201cthe delivery of healthcare is going to be fundamentally changed by AI.\u201d He added that the technological shift \u201cconcerns\u201d him because \u201ceveryone\u2019s not going to benefit equally from this AI revolution.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fleisher, on the other hand, described how AI can be used to \u201cdemocratize\u201d healthcare \u2014\u00a0pointing to its ability to enable a \u201cregular radiologist anywhere to be as good as the expert at Penn who spends every hour of the day looking at specific images.\u201d<\/p>\n

College sophomore and PPU president Marcus Michie explained that the \u201cbest way\u201d to ensure \u201cthese conversations have the greatest reach possible\u201d on campus is through collaboration with other clubs and organizations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fireside chat, held at the Perelman Center for Political Science and Economics, was co-hosted by the Wharton Undergraduate Healthcare Club, the Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy, and the Penn Center for Public Health.<\/p>\n

In a statement to the DP, College junior and WUHC co-president Joseph Richards wrote that as an undergraduate, it is \u201cprofoundly meaningful” to have the \u201copportunity to engage with leaders of this stature in an intimate setting.\u201d<\/p>\n

College junior and PPU vice president of external Neil Pereira, who helped coordinate the event, similarly expressed that the organization hopes to \u201cbring important current events to the front of the minds of students.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Penn Political Union hosted two federal health policy experts for a Wednesday discussion about the future of United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-174620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-philadelphia","9":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","10":"tag-philadelphia-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}