Free Markets, Private Equity, and the Moral Case for Medicine

Free Markets, Private Equity, and the Moral Case for Medicine

Author: The Doctor's Lounge May 17, 2026 Duration: 1:26:47

Episode Summary

Jared Rhoads, founder of the Center for Modern Health and senior lecturer in health policy at the Dartmouth Institute, joins Drs. Koka and DiGiorgio for a wide-ranging conversation on the philosophical foundations of healthcare policy. Rhoads — an Objectivist in the tradition of Ayn Rand — argues that physicians have a right to pursue health, not a right to be given it, and walks through what that distinction means for real policy debates: FDA drug approval, prior authorization, the ban on physician-owned hospitals, private equity in medicine, and foreign-trained physician licensure. The episode is a rare attempt to make the moral case for free markets in medicine, not just the efficiency case.

Chapter Markers

00:00 Introduction and guest background

01:52 What is the Center for Modern Health?

04:25 Objectivism, Ayn Rand, and rational self-interest

11:19 Healthcare as a private good vs. community good

13:58 Policy mistakes made for edge cases

16:58 You have a right to pursue health — not to be given it

20:14 Does Medicare violate rights?

22:47 Positive vs. negative rights in healthcare

24:47 The FDA, drug approval, and the Prasad/McCary departures

31:08 A two-tier FDA review proposal: private vs. public payers

42:25 Breaking up Big Medicine — the Hawley-Warren bill

49:43 Prior authorization: structural problem or reform target?

55:22 High-deductible plans and why price consciousness hasn't taken hold

57:43 Price transparency laws: do they actually work?

01:02:49 Section 6001 and the de facto ban on physician-owned hospitals

01:06:04 Stark Law, Medicare Advantage, and a possible reform path

01:11:19 Private equity in medicine: where are the actual rights violations?

01:19:02 Free markets and monopolies: the standard objection answered

01:21:12 Foreign-trained physician licensure

01:34:11 Immigration, physician workforce, and the battle of ideas

01:37:40 Center for Modern Health summer fellowship

Co-Host Handles

@anish_koka and @drdigiorgio

Show Handle

@drsloungepod

Subscribe Links

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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-doctors-lounge/id1832097658

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheDoctorsLoungePod


In The Doctor's Lounge, the white coat comes off for a conversation that moves freely from the exam room to the boardroom. This isn't a lecture hall; it's the back table where practicing physicians gather to unpack the complex systems that define modern medicine. Hosted by Dutch Rojas and Anthony DiGiorgio, DO, with regular voices like Anish Koka, MD, Dan Choi, MD, and Sanat Dixit, MD, the discussions are built on frontline experience. You'll hear unfiltered perspectives on the policy debates that shape care, the realities of navigating business and entrepreneurship within a medical practice, and the constant push for meaningful reform. The dialogue is grounded in a shared commitment to physician autonomy and, ultimately, better patient outcomes. Each episode in this podcast connects the dots between clinical fitness and the health of the medical profession itself, offering a rare look at the challenges and opportunities that exist where patient care meets the mechanics of the healthcare industry. It's a space for the nuanced, often contentious, and always real conversations happening behind the scenes.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 56

The Doctor's Lounge
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