Laura Katz Olson on ‘The Week in Health Law’ Podcast

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Our guest this week is Laura Katz Olson, Professor of Political Science at Lehigh University. Laura is the author of eight books, including The Politics of Medicaid and Elder Care Journey. Olson has published widely in the field of aging, health care and women’s studies, her articles addressing such topics as Medicaid, Medicare, long-term care of the elderly, pensions, Social Security and problems experienced by older women. She has been a Scholar at the Social Security Administration, a Gerontological Fellow and a Fulbright Scholar. She is also on the editorial board of the Journal of Aging Studies and New Political Science.

Our conversation first focused on recent developments in federal health policy, including slashing cuts to Medicaid in proposed budgets. We then discussed Elder Care Journey, an insightful mix of Laura’s personal experience seeking long term care for her mother, and her connection of that experience to failures in US policy on aging. The personal is indeed political, and Laura connects negative experiences ranging from quotidian frustration to alarming neglect, to a set of health laws and policies that fails to offer adequate support to dementia patients and their caregivers.

The Week in Health Law Podcast from Frank Pasquale and Nicolas Terry is a commuting-length discussion about some of the more thorny issues in Health Law & Policy. Subscribe at Apple Podcasts, listen at Stitcher Radio, Tunein and Podbean, or search for The Week in Health Law in your favorite podcast app. Show notes and more are at TWIHL.com. If you have comments, an idea for a show or a topic to discuss you can find us on Twitter @nicolasterry @FrankPasquale @WeekInHealthLaw.

Nicolas P. Terry

Nicolas Terry is the Hall Render Professor of Law at Indiana University McKinney School of Law where he serves as the Executive Director of the Hall Center for Law and Health and teaches various healthcare and health policy courses. His recent scholarship has dealt with health privacy, mobile health, the Internet of Things, Big Data, AI, and the opioid overdose epidemic. He serves on IU’s Grand Challenges Scientific Leadership Team, working on the addictions crisis and is the PI on addictions law and policy Grand Challenge grants. His podcast is at TWIHL.com, and he is @nicolasterry on Twitter.