In the latest episode of Breaking Battlegrounds, hosts Chuck Warren and Sam Stone sit down with political strategist Albert Eisenberg for a deep dive into one of America’s most urgent and personal issues: healthcare.

Eisenberg argues that Republicans don’t need to reinvent the wheel to win on this issue—they just need to start speaking like real people and offering real solutions.

“We need to speak in the language that regular working voters understand, offer specific solutions, and then get in front of voters,” he says. “It’s really not that complicated.”

With healthcare costs climbing and voters feeling the squeeze, Eisenberg lays out a strategy rooted in common sense, competition, and clear communication—three ingredients that could finally help conservatives take the lead on healthcare reform.

1️⃣ Stop Blocking Doctors

Sam Stone opens the discussion with a point few voters know about but almost everyone would agree on:
too many states use “Certificates of Need” to block new hospitals, clinics, and private medical practices from opening.

“Stop preventing doctors from opening new hospitals,” Stone says. “It’s an easy message—and it’s true.”

Eisenberg agrees, calling this kind of reform a no-brainer for conservatives. Removing bureaucratic red tape doesn’t just help doctors—it expands access, lowers costs, and puts patients first. It’s a clear example of what policy looks like when it serves people, not systems.

2️⃣ Break Up the Healthcare Monopolies

“The consolidation of hospital systems—and the fact that most doctors now work for huge hospital systems—is an under-told story that’s driving up costs,” Eisenberg warns.

He takes direct aim at Big Pharma and corporate hospital chains, describing a system that “excavates value from hardworking Americans” while raking in record profits.

The fix, he says, isn’t complicated: encourage competition, cap pharma prices where appropriate, and remind voters that standing up to monopolies is not a partisan stance—it’s a pro-freedom one.

3️⃣ Think Beyond Pills: A Broader Vision of Health

Eisenberg pushes for a broader definition of health—one that goes beyond prescriptions and profits.

He suggests that policies like phone-free schools could have dramatic, bipartisan impacts on student mental health and academic performance.
“It’s actually bipartisan,” he notes. “We could lead on that. It shows that we’re thinking about health not just as pharmaceutical profits or what hospital systems are doing, but in a broader, more holistic way.”

The conversation even touches on reviving physical fitness programs in schools—echoing the JFK and Reagan-era initiatives that once inspired a generation to move, compete, and take pride in their physical health.

Winning Back Young Voters

Eisenberg closes with a warning—and a call to action.

“Younger men shifted toward Republicans last cycle,” he says, “but we’ve eroded support since 2024 with those key voters that made us the majority and won us seven swing states.”

He believes the GOP can regain that support by connecting healthcare, education, and opportunity in ways that feel real to young voters. “Those are the people who are going to make or break our elections,” he says. “We need to give them something to rally around.”

Transcript

Sam Stone: I want to talk about some of the health care solutions. One, Chuck, I think, you know you want an easy one to message certificate of need, which is being used to block new hospitals, block new clinics, block new doctor practices. The easy message there is just to say stop preventing doctors from opening new hospitals.

Is that the kind of thing we need to be going after? Because one of the main issues in healthcare is you’re never going to get it under control without getting rid of the over-bureaucratization that’s come in under Obamacare and coding changes for Medicare and Medicaid.

Albert Eisenberg: Absolutely. I think we need to speak in the language that regular working voters understand, offer specific solutions that we’re going to have the majority on and then campaign around them. And it’s like that those three steps speak like a regular person about these issues, offer specific solutions and then get in front of voters. It’s really not that complicated. And especially when you see that this is the top pressing issue for voters where Republicans consistently have a disadvantage.

This is why I’m banging the drum on this issue and I appreciate you guys doing the same.

Sam Stone: What in your mind would be like say the first three things that Republicans should jump out with messaging this?

Albert Eisenberg: I think the consolidation of hospital systems and the fact that most doctors are now working for huge hospital systems is an under told story that’s a really big problem and it’s driving up costs. I think the big pharma, you know, trying to cap costs and increase competition and make it so it’s not this basically excavating value from American, you know, hardworking Americans and they’re just profiteering a lot of items.

I think that’s a big problem that we should be in front of where we have a natural advantage. And then I think something positive for younger people like phone free schools is something that should be passed nationally. The outcomes are amazing. It’s actually bipartisan. We could lead on that. And that shows that we’re thinking about health, not just as far as pharmaceutical profits or what the hospital systems are doing, but actually in a broader and more holistic way, which is where the electorate has shifted as well.

Chuck Warren: Correct.

Sam Stone: Would a physical fitness program for K-12, you know, go back to what we had with Reagan and JFK and all these others, it seems like there’s just this huge gap there that could be addressed and people would get it.

Albert Eisenberg: Absolutely. That shift of younger men towards Republicans last cycle and the podcast guys like that is something that we could we have eroded support since 2024 with those key voters that made us the majority and won us seven swing states. We need to be the boomers in Congress need to understand that those are the people that are going to make or break our elections and we need to speak to them in their language and get them something to rally around. And I mean, RFK would be the perfect spokesman for something like that. Look at the guy.

Sam Stone: Right.

Listen to the full episode of Breaking Battlegrounds anywhere you stream your podcasts!