Search results for ""author george c. halvorson""

The United States spends more money on health care by far than any other country and yet nearly 50,000,000 Americans are uninsured at least part of the time each year. Health Care Reform Now! is written for anyone who cares enough about our health care situation to consider serious alternatives to the current system. In this book George Halvorson—an internationally known health care leader and author—offers a sensible approach to health care reform and universal coverage that can work for all stakeholders. Step by step, George Halvorson outlines a game plan for a truly world-class health care system that will appeal to policy makers on both ends of the political spectrum and will deliver health care with improved quality, better access, provider accountability, performance transparency, consumer choice, and individual empowerment.

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Health care reform is within our reach. According to George Halvorson, CEO of the nation's largest private health care plan, only by improving the intent, quality, and reach of services will we achieve a health system that is economically feasible into the future. This year, Americans will spend 2.5 trillion for health services that are poorly coordinated, inconsistent, and most typically focused on the belated care of chronic conditions. What we have to show for that expenditure is a nation that continues to become more obese, less healthy, and more depressed. In Health Care Will Not Reform Itself, Kaiser Permanente CEO George Halvorson proves beyond a doubt that the tragically inconsistent care that currently defines the state of U.S. health services is irresponsible, irrational, but more importantly, fixable. With detail that might shock you, he shows why the nonsystem we now use is failing. Then, applying the same sensible leadership that makes Kaiser the most progressive health care organization in the world, he answers President Obama’s mandate for reform with a profound incentive-based, system-supported, goal-focused, care-improvement plan.Halvorson draws from respected studies, including his own, and the examples of successful systems across the world to show that while good health care is expensive, it is nowhere near as costly as bad health care. To immediately curb care costs and bring us in line with President Obama's projected parameters, he recommends that we: Take a preventive approach to the chronic conditions that account for the lion’s share of medical costs Coordinate patient care through a full commitment to information technology Increase the pool of contributors by mandating universal insurance Rearrange priorities by making health maintenance profitable Convene a national committee to "figure out the right thing" and "make it easy to do" While this book offers sage advice to policy makers, it is also written to educate the 260 million stakeholders and invite their participation in the debate that is now shaping. What makes this plan so easy to understand and so compelling is that it never strays from a profound truth: that the best health system is one that actually focuses on good health for everyone.All royalties from the sale of this book go to Oakland Community Voices: Healthcare for the Underserved

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Health care premiums in the U.S. are escalating from twelve to twenty percent a year— with no end in sight. The impact of those cost increases on both employers and employees will be huge. Workers will see a direct cut in their take-home pay. Millions will lose health insurance coverage completely. Senior citizens on fixed incomes will be hit particularly hard, as premiums for their Medicare supplement plans and prescription drug costs climb. Frustrated and angry, people will soon be demanding a solution from their elected officials, and, for the first time in recent memory, the size of our unemployed population will become a real political issue rather than just the subject of energetic rhetoric. It is time to recognize that we are moving into a major health care crisis in this country, a crisis driven by the way we deliver, receive, and pay for care. Epidemic of Care offers a comprehensive assessment of the factors behind the cost crisis, how the crisis will escalate, and what can be done to improve the situation. A blueprint for getting to a coherent national health policy, this book calls for a collaboration between different parts of the private sector, state and local governments, and, at times, the federal government— with a formula that can succeed no matter who rules Congress. Authors George C. Halvorson and George J. Isham, M.D.— two individuals who have made an impressive impact on the national health care scene— provide some practical, field-tested, sometimes controversial suggestions about how to make health care in this country more accountable, more efficient, more valuable, and more affordable.

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