Elisabeth Rosenthal Warns U.S. Healthcare is “Close to Falling Apart”
30 Oct 2025
Veteran physician-turned-journalist Elisabeth Rosenthal says America’s healthcare system is buckling under the weight of perverse incentives, mounting costs, and policy paralysis, and that millions could feel the pain during this fall’s open-enrollment season. Her assessment anchors the episode of Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s CNN podcast Chasing Life, titled “Why It Costs So Much to Get Sick.”
Rosenthal—senior contributing editor at KFF Health News and author of An American Sickness—argues that today’s crisis is the product of decades of “unnatural evolution”: the conversion of care into line-item revenue streams, escalating patient cost-sharing, and business strategies that put financial efficiency ahead of bedside care.
The episode lands amid a government shutdown that could disrupt ACA open enrollment and turbo-charge premium shocks if enhanced subsidies lapse. Rosenthal warns the timing could sow confusion for consumers facing already-filed 2026 rate increases, with the most significant harm falling on middle-income workers and the self-employed who rely on marketplace coverage.
Rosenthal outlines a menu of fixes rather than a single prescription: tighter price regulation, expanded public options, and stronger transparency to protect patients from unclear charges. She cautions that private-equity consolidation and entrenched lobbying make incremental patchwork especially fragile.
Her dual vantage as a former ER doctor and longtime New York Times correspondent makes her a pivotal voice as policymakers weigh near-term relief against long-term reforms.
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