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Fighting for access: How a rural doctor took on US Healthcare – Shannon Dowler #27

Fighting for access: How a rural doctor took on US Healthcare – Shannon Dowler #27

Medical Portraits vor 10 Monaten

0:00

46:22

A patient who didn’t have to die: why Dr. Shannon Dowler worked
so hard on expanding Medicaid, fixing rural care, and why sex
education after 60 matters.

Dr. Shannon Dowler is a rural family physician from the
Appalachian Mountains, former Chief Medical Officer of North
Carolina Medicaid, author of Never Too Late: Your Guide to Safer
Sex After 60, and a musician who makes STI education catchy
because “STDs Never Get Old.” We discuss how personal stories
drive policy, what Medicaid expansion really changed, and why
creative, stigma-free sexual health education saves lives. We
also cover dating apps, rising STIs in older adults, and why
physician leaders should keep one foot in the clinic.

Topics we cover:

– The preventable deaths that shaped her mission

– Medicaid in North Carolina: expansion, outcomes, and new work
requirements

– Rural medicine realities: distance, disasters, and access

– Sex after 60: practical STI prevention and talking about
testing

– How humor, rap videos, and a book make important topics
approachable

Tune in for a candid, hopeful conversation at the intersection of
medicine, policy, and public health—told by someone who’s led at
the state level and still shows up for patients.

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Tell me what you liked, what to change, and who to invite next.
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Follow for updates & clips:

🟡 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/medicalportraits/

🟡 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MedicalPortraits

🟡 Apple Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/medical-portraits/id1759320078?l=en-GB

🟡 Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/37OesLF98yhUY8AUrGZMv1?si=c5c1c85524d74ca3