Host: Chad Benson

Recording Date: January 4, 2026

"It’s like Mr. Belding from Saved by the Bell trying to take on a Terminator." Recording from his living room in Sioux City, host Chad Benson moves from the "Base Kid Mentality" to a surgical strike on Iowa’s fiscal failures. As the 2026 legislative session approaches, this episode pulls back the curtain on a system that has forgotten how to care for a child while becoming an expert at "doodling in the margins" of administrative compliance.

We dive deep into the $7 billion Medicaid machine—the largest line item in the Iowa budget. Chad breaks down the "Administrative Leakage" that sends over $1 billion annually to out-of-state boardrooms and shareholders while local therapists are forced to shutter their doors. By comparing Iowa’s 15% administrative load to Connecticut’s 3.8% model, we expose a system designed to pay contractors more for doing a worse job.

The recurring "Benjamins" segment returns to highlight the profit-over-people motives of Managed Care Organizations (MCOs)—[Audio Drop: "It's all about the Benjamins, baby"]. Chad contrasts a world that can successfully market fried-chicken-flavored toothpaste while making Iowa families wait 90 days for basic medical records.

• The Doodle Metaphor: Why "performative compliance" is the greatest enemy of actual clinical care in Iowa.

• The Connecticut Gold Standard: How a non-profit model reclaimed hundreds of millions for care by firing the corporate middlemen.

• The "Silent 20" Crisis: An inside look at the redundant bureaucracy of care coordination meetings where "authorized decision-makers" are nowhere to be found.

• The Natan Provision: A legislative proposal to end the "state secret" status of medical records with $5,000 daily fines for non-compliance.

• Breaking the Shield: Why "Sovereign Immunity" must be revoked to hold the state accountable for administrative neglect.

• The Lead Seat Rule: Mandating that any state meeting must include a decision-maker with a 48-hour "Yes or No" deadline.

• District Sovereignty: Transitioning to seven district-led health boards to keep Iowa tax dollars in Iowa communities.

• The 15% Recovery: Reclaiming $1 billion to fund a 25% rate increase for behavioral health providers and 300 new local "System Navigators".

• The 24/7 Response: Redirecting funds to create mobile crisis teams so families in the middle of the night call clinicians, not the police.

"There is no fate but what we make for our families." It is time to stop the "what-ifs" and start the "right-nows." Join the unit as we push for the IHSA and demand a system that values human life over corporate dividends.

"A machine can learn the value of human life—maybe we can too."

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