Insuring Growth explores the biggest challenges and opportunities facing health insurance leaders, focusing on what executives need to know now.
carriers, brokers, and agents operate. That’s why e123 is launching a new podcast, Insuring Growth, Where health insurance leaders come together for engaging conversations on policy, education, and business strategy to drive growth. Hosted by e123 President, Brendan McLoughlin, the show features bold, unfiltered conversations with industry experts on the forces reshaping health insurance—from policy shifts under the Trump administration to digital transformation and beyond.
In our first episode, McLoughlin sits down with Dr. Makayla Lavender, a health economist and assistant professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Lee Business School. Dr. Lavender has been tracking the sweeping changes the Trump administration is enacting and shares her insights on the constantly evolving, increasingly complex healthcare landscape.
While healthcare wasn't a major campaign focus, 2025 has unleashed policy changes that will reshape Medicaid, ACA, Medicare, short-term medical (STM), and even employer-sponsored healthcare. With the current administration planning to cut $880 billion in federal health spending, the impacts will be widespread.
Brendan and Dr. Lavender analyze the themes of the current administration, including reducing fraud, waste, abuse, personal responsibility, and consumer sovereignty, how they differ from the first Trump administration, and the real-world implications for both the industry and consumers. While the first Trump administration was focused on dismantling the ACA, the current administration, according to Dr. Lavender, is taking a more fine-tuned approach that includes reducing subsidies, expanding Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRAs), penalties for states covering immigrants, and CMS as the core policy engine.
These overarching themes provide context for the Medicaid work requirement, the push for hospital price transparency, and other pending changes. Beyond understanding what the policy shifts are, Dr. Lavender explains the economic impacts of these changes and what they mean for everyone—from carriers to agents to consumers—in the industry. For example, with the new Medicaid work requirements, who is likely to lose coverage and who will keep it? Will healthier people drop out of Medicaid and into the ACA exchanges, and will that make the risk profile unsustainable for community health plans? How much chaos will members and agents experience during open enrollment this year and beyond? With real insights about consumer engagement, Dr. Lavender provides actionable advice for these plans and the brokers and agents selling Medicaid plans.
With uncertainty impacting every part of the insurance value chain, Insuring Growth provides granular insights that inform business strategy and accelerate revenue. Minor rule changes can have unintended consequences with significant impact on the health insurance industry, members, and their families. In the pilot episode, Brendan and Dr. Lavender break down the evolving regulations to help educate and prepare carriers, distributors, and agents to anticipate and manage change.
Insuring Growth will feature conversations with industry executives and thought leaders who understand both the health insurance landscape and its practical implications. This is the competitive intelligence that industry decision-makers need in the face of unprecedented change.
Insuring Growth is an ongoing conversation in a critical, rapidly-evolving industry. If you’re interested in being a guest and discussing the challenges facing healthcare and insurance leaders, please reach out to us at podcast@enrollment123.com.