February 09, 2010
11:42 am
Recently, I had the opportunity to write a post for the esteemed website, Disruptive Women in Health Care. I shared my concerns about the number of states – Virginia being the most recent – that are moving legislation or introducing constitutional amendments to prevent the federal government from requiring their citizens to acquire health insurance.
The concern here is that erecting barriers – be they legal or political – to prevent an individual health insurance mandate makes essential health reform impossible. Everyone wants to ensure that every citizen can purchase health insurance regardless of whether they have a pre-existing health condition. We can’t take that step, though, unless everyone – young and old, high and low healthcare spenders – are in the system. Read more
February 05, 2010
9:19 am
Ron Williams, the chief executive officer of Aetna and a member of the Healthcare Leadership Council executive committee, is a co-chair of the prestigious Davos Economic Summit. While in Davos, Mr. Williams took the time to sit down with Fox Business News and discuss the current state of health reform and what’s missing from the current legislation that is stalled on Capitol Hill.
He makes important points about the need to emphasize care coordination between physicians and hospitals, the noticeable absence of medical liability reform which leads to rising defensive medicine costs, and the pressing need to make the financially challenged Medicare program more cost effective.
To watch the full interview go here.
February 02, 2010
2:08 pm
Below is my commentary piece which was featured yesterday in Modern Healthcare Magazine:
Political analysts and pundits have already begun conducting an autopsy on the Obama administration’s effort to reform America’s healthcare system. Dismal poll results, the Scott Brown Senate victory in Massachusetts and squeamishness over the upcoming November elections have combined, they say, to bring yet another health reform effort to a crashing demise.
Call me a stubborn optimist, but I still believe it’s possible to find a cure for this patient rather than give up the ghost. The need to improve our healthcare system is just as imperative today as when this legislative process started. Failure should not be regarded as an option. Read more
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