Welcome to the Pioneers in Health podcast. In this podcast, we share inspiring stories of pioneering leaders from our nation and from your backyard who are working to improve health.

In episode 31, we interview Mike Perry, partner and co-founder at the public opinion research firm PerryUndem.

Before co-founding PerryUndem in 2013, Mike was a partner for 16 years at the national polling firm Lake Research Partners.

Through public opinion research, Mike works to bring the voice of those most affected by today’s issues into the policymaking process. He works mainly with nonprofit organizations and foundations and has briefed members of Congress, White House officials, state-elected officials, journalists, activists and others on his findings.

He works on a wide variety of social issues but specializes in health care research. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Southern California.

In this episode, he discusses how he found his way into public opinion research, including how growing up with a father who was a family physician helped inspire his later concentration on health care issues.

He said he was unfocused in college but graduated with an English degree and then pursued a graduate degree in international relations. Upon graduation, he returned to his hometown of Washington, D.C., assuming he would find a job doing something international. However, he needed money and the first job he accepted happened to be in public policy research.

“I stumbled into this career and found out I loved it,” he said. “I love doing focus groups, I love doing surveys, I love asking people about their lives, so it all really started there.”

He discusses how over the course of his career he has seen the public opinion on health care evolve to become more divided. He said it’s become politicized, especially after the Affordable Care Act was created and became targeted by politicians. The collective approach that had existed to health care was torn apart, he said.

“It’s sort of been hard to get us back to that place of common ground on health care,” he said.

He discusses establishing his own public research firm and why they intentionally created it — and maintain it — as a nonpartisan organization.

He also shares findings from recent research he conducted in Kansas and nationally that reveals what is most challenging to families raising young children right now. Child care is expensive and families are facing tough choices, he said, including whether to even have children or whether they can continue working while raising them.

“Life is just really hard right now for a lot of families,” he said.

He also discusses:

• How he’s focusing on helping inform state-based solutions right now and less on federal
• How health is broader than health care and what he’s learned through focus groups
• How polling shows Americans are concerned about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act removing access to food and health insurance
• The importance of educating people about the impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act
• How messaging on topics may change, but how underlying values often remain the same
• Work requirements for Medicaid and what he hears in focus groups
• How a fractured media environment is impacting discussion on health care topics
• Mixing people from different political backgrounds in focus groups and how that can lead to finding more common ground
• The need for plain language and less jargon when discussing ideas

And much more! Listen now, and learn more about how Mike is an innovative leader in health care research.

Listen now

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