The new year could bring dramatic changes to health care in America — as insurance premiums skyrocket, driving an affordability crisis, and as long-standing vaccine recommendations undergo a radical overhaul, artificial intelligence and technological advances transform the practice of medicine, and as a single class of weight-loss drugs grow in accessibility with the potential to halt the nation’s ever-rising obesity epidemic.

The Detroit Free Press interviewed Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, the chief medical executive for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services; Dr. Anand Parekh, chief health policy officer at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, and Dr. Marschall Runge, the former CEO of Michigan Medicine, about the five most important changes on the horizon for public health, medicine and the well-being of Michiganders in 2026.