Episode 19: Why the Richest Man in America Dies Younger Than the Poorest Woman

For more than two decades, Congress has tried and failed to give American men what women have had since 1992: a dedicated federal office focused on their health outcomes. Fifteen bills. Nine sessions of Congress. Not one has ever received a committee vote.

In this episode, Dr. Paul Turek and Rob Clyde welcome U.S. Representative Troy Carter, the Louisiana congressman leading the latest attempt, the State of Men’s Health Act. The conversation moves between clinical fact and legislative reality, examining why men remain medically underserved from adolescence onward, what a coordinated federal office could actually change for patients facing prostate cancer, cardiovascular disease, infertility and depression, and much more and what stands in the way of a bill that already carries bipartisan support and backing from the American Urological Association.

The episode also revisits the legacy of the late Congressman Donald Payne Jr., who championed this cause for years before his death from diabetes complications in 2024, a loss that gives this legislative effort a weight beyond policy.

It is easy to assume, at a glance, that a healthcare system has always been built with men in mind. Executive Producer and Turek Clinic CEO, Jennifer Harris pushes back on that assumption directly: “I understand why people might think that. But as a wife and a mother, my interest here is a lot more personal than any assumption about the system. I want my husband, the father of my children, to have every possible year available to him. Without a consolidated Office of Men’s Health, we are leaving real opportunities to keep men well on the table, and that gap does not check party affiliation, race or income before it shows up. This is not a just a men’s issue or a women’s issue. It is a family issue.”

Representative Carter closes the conversation with a clear answer to what a functioning Office of Men’s Health could actually change for the next generation, and what it would take to finally get this particular bill past the finish line where fourteen others stalled. That answer is worth hearing in full. It is also worth acting on. A call or a message to your own representative asking where they stand on the State of Men’s Health Act H.R. 7602 takes a few minutes and carries real weight.