• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
Blooming Wellness

Blooming Wellness

Dr. Eek's Health & Wellness Blog

  • Home
  • About
  • Dr. Eeks
  • Blog
  • Other-Ads
  • Contact

What Happened When the US Tried Universal Healthcare for Kidney Failure?

October 12, 2023 by Dr. Eeks

What happened when the US tried universal healthcare for kidney failure? when the us tried universal healthcare

If you’re furrowing right now, you’re not alone. I didn’t know the US tried universal healthcare for anything. David Krissman, a filmmaker and documentarian, contacted me after he heard the podcast I did with Elaine Perlman, in which she describes what it was like to donate her kidney to a stranger, and informed me about his investigative podcast series that goes into all the good, bad and ugly of our experience with universal healthcare. I listened to it over one weekend and was thoroughly impressed with his podcast and also stunned by what I heard. Simply, put it’s a fascinating tale, and I really hope you tune in to this podcast episode.

Soooo,

In Causes or Cures Episode 154, I chat with David Krissman about his investigative podcast series called, “The Great Social Experiment,” about America’s only experiment with universal healthcare, the treatment of patients with kidney failure.

David takes us back to 1972, when congress guaranteed healthcare coverage to people with kidney failure regardless of race, socioeconomic status and age. And while on the surface, this sounds like a great and altruistic endeavor, David describes why it is a cautionary tale of inequity, faulty decision-making on life-or-death matters, putting profits first, questionable incentives and at the core, what drives human behavior. Throughout the podcast, David references media reports, government data, interviews with prominent experts and kidney patients. So fasten your seatbelts, because this is an incredible story by a great storyteller.

Listen here to what happened when the US tried universal healthcare.

Please consider subscribing to the podcast or my newsletter! All of your support is very much appreciated. :)

Also check out these Causes or Cures Podcast Episodes:

Is COVID causing an increase in Type 1 Diabetes in Kids? 

What’s the misinformation on misinformation? 

https://youtu.be/_srGEpw2jHU?si=MHfJKc21ETMML3GG

Category: Interviews with Experts & Guest PostsTag: Causes Or Cures Podcast, dialysis, kidney failure, kidney transplant, universal healthcare

Dr. Eeks

Dr. Eeks runs bloomingwellness.com and writes most of the blogs. She is a public health consultant & contractor, wrote the book Manic Kingdom, and hosts the Causes or Cures Podcast.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
Learn More

Copyright © 2026 · Blooming Wellness · All Rights Reserved · Website by Wellspring Web Studio

Back to top