The Cost of Helping Co-Workers

Guest: J.B. Silvers, PhD, Professor of Health Care Management at Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University This is the last day people can sign up for health insurance in 2017 through the state and federal marketplaces – or “exchanges” – created by the Affordable Care Act.  It could be the last Obamacare enrollment period ever, since President Trump and Republicans in Congress are in the process of repealing it. If you get insurance through your employer or from Medicaid or Medicare, this deadline doesn’t mean much to you, because the Obamacare marketplaces are meant for people who are self-employed or retired early or work an hourly job that doesn’t offer health benefits. They make up the “individual insurance market” and what you may not realize is that Obamacare was primarily created for them. So, they will be among those most affected if its repealed.

Guest: Paul Sharpe, PhD, Professor of Craniofacial Biology, Dental Institute King’s College, London All through childhood and adolescence, cavities were a pretty regular part of our lives, and getting them filled is no fun. The needles and drills and the sitting there with your mouth cranked wide open trying not to freak out about what’s going on.  So here’s some exciting news - researchers at King’s College London have figured out how to make teeth in mice regenerate themselves. Here’s hoping they can figure out how to make it work in humans.

Guest: Michael Snyder, PhD, professor of Genetics, Stanford Your Fitbit can tell you how many steps you took in a day, but what if it could pick up subtle cues that you might be sick, even before you realize you’re not feeling well? The technology to do that is pretty much already here. What we need is computer programs that can collect that steady stream of data about our body temperature, heart rate, oxygen levels and such and make sense of it.

Guest: Amy Lu, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies and the Game Design Program, College of Arts, Media and Design, Department of Health Sciences of the Bouve College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University

Guest: Ryan Vogel, J.D., Professor and Founding Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Utah Valley University