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Archive: Jane Sarasohn-Kahn
The heavy lifting begins
Whether we're health citizens, providers, payers, plans, suppliers to the industry or government agencies, our roles in health and health care will evolve over the coming months and years.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | March 30, 2010; 08:57 AM ET | Comments (0)
It takes a village to solve the health-care crisis
The Village needs a public option to drive costs down in local markets and provide competition.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | March 10, 2010; 10:21 AM ET | Comments (0)
The imperfect market for individual health insurance
Sadly, there are lots of buyers for individual health plans but very few sellers. Thus, it's a seller's market for a product that most health insurance plans haven't figured out how to build, market or price.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | February 17, 2010; 01:49 PM ET | Comments (3)
Let's get it done
The President said, "Let's get it done." Please, just do so. The dots directly connect between health care costs, jobs and the economy today, and for the health of the national budget in the long run.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | January 27, 2010; 08:37 PM ET | Comments (1)
A lost opportunity
A lost opportunity, sure. But time to reformulate and deal with other issues, like job creation and energy conservation and innovation? Absolutely.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | January 20, 2010; 10:58 AM ET | Comments (1)
Where's America's high-value health system?
What we needed for real reform was to re-engineer health financing and delivery toward patient-centered, high-value outcomes.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | January 5, 2010; 09:26 AM ET | Comments (0)
A bumpy journey toward evidence-based medicine
The more education and clear information that can be shared with health citizens to truly empower us, the sooner the U.S. will morph into a consumer-centered evidence-based health system.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | December 9, 2009; 09:29 AM ET | Comments (1)
Get serious about cutting costs
What's missing from health reform is a bolder, more comprehensive approach to managing costs.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | November 30, 2009; 12:48 PM ET | Comments (0)
Lose a job, lose insurance
But with each passing month in the jobless recovery, more people will move into the uninsured pool of Americans. Watch for emergency room waits and hospital/provider bad debt to grow.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | November 19, 2009; 09:17 AM ET | Comments (0)
When what's legal isn't legal anymore
One of the practical implications of further limiting access to abortion for the less well-off is to move these women "off the grid" of the regular health providers they use and into the hands of potentially less safe and unknown providers.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | November 10, 2009; 04:45 PM ET | Comments (1)
Crack cost containment through chronic care
We need a strategic war on chronic care in America to address spiralling health costs in the nation. In 2007, $1.7 trillion was spent on chronic health conditions in the U.S. This consumed about 75 percent of the total $2.2...
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | October 27, 2009; 06:10 AM ET | Comments (0)
There is no nirvana
Improving the U.S. system will require us to learn from the best practices of our peer-developed countries' systems; the recipe would include the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland and Denmark.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | October 21, 2009; 07:55 AM ET | Comments (8)
The Promise of an Individual Mandate
While no plan will be perfect, the good news is that with the Senate Finance Committee's bill, we're on our way toward achieving universal coverage of health insurance in the U.S.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | October 13, 2009; 05:40 PM ET | Comments (0)
Expect Hidden Health Taxes
By directly taxing employers to cover the uninsured, there's more transparency and light brought to a process that's currently hidden, arcane and inequitable.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | October 7, 2009; 09:36 AM ET | Comments (0)
The Inequity of a Health Plan Tax
In the short run, the excise tax may seem like a useful way to generate funds to cover health reform. But such a tax perverts the marketplace and creates inequities for both workers and the employers who sponsor health insurance.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | September 21, 2009; 05:08 PM ET | Comments (2)
The Ballad of President Obama, Inspired by The Beatles
Indulge me in my recap of President Obama's speech through the lens of The Beatles, remastered.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | September 10, 2009; 08:48 AM ET | Comments (0)
A Loss for Public Health
Beyond my personal feelings of loss from the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy, I have feelings as a public health professional. There has been no one in public service with the visibility, high energy, and commitment to Americans' individual and collective health than Kennedy.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | August 26, 2009; 04:01 PM ET | Comments (0)
Press On, Mr. President, for Universal Coverage and Quality
We're not nearly No. 1 when it comes to health-care quality.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | August 24, 2009; 11:23 AM ET | Comments (3)
Digitize Health Data to Address Medicare Waste, Fraud
Three areas of waste in Medicare can be addressed through electronic information.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | August 11, 2009; 10:55 AM ET | Comments (1)
The PR Wars: Battling for Health Care Hearts and Minds
The postponing of a vote on health reform ushers in what we'll look back on as the Summer of the PR Wars. We will see heated campaigns promoting every angle of health reform funded by stakeholder groups: from Go-Go to Slow-Go to No-Go.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | July 28, 2009; 05:59 AM ET | Comments (0)
The Heavy Lifting of Health Reform
There's no way to cut spending in American health care without re-engineering how care is delivered.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | July 20, 2009; 11:20 AM ET | Comments (1)
A Chance to Bolster Healthy Behaviors
The first focus should be on America's obesity epidemic, which is bolstered by a food industry supported, in turn, by public policy and fiscal incentives.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | July 15, 2009; 06:38 AM ET | Comments (1)
Managing Risk Through Mandating Health Insurance
The mandate accomplishes two key objectives: it helps to better manage risk and it gets the U.S. to long overdue universal coverage.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | July 7, 2009; 05:12 PM ET | Comments (1)
The Pharmacist Is the Nexus
The pharmacist plays a crucial link in a consumer's health behavior as an intermediary between the physician and the patient.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | June 30, 2009; 08:43 AM ET | Comments (0)
Old-School Discounting, New-World Challenge
It's deja vu all over again: the prescription drug industry's "give back" feels very much like the tactic adopted in the the Clinton reform era when drug prices moderated. Then, the not-so-invisible hand of the market motivated the industry to lower the rate of price increases as the threat of price controls loomed.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | June 23, 2009; 07:02 AM ET | Comments (0)
Becoming Value Shoppers for Health Care
The notion of "value" in health care cannot mean "cheap." We can't Wal-mart-ize our way out of the mess we're in. "Value" in health must cover person-centric whole health, in a life-cycle management paradigm.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | June 15, 2009; 05:07 PM ET | Comments (0)
Think Info-tainment.
The average health citizen needs to feel inspired to engage in their personal health, and in the health of those for whom they care. Think info-tainment.
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn | June 10, 2009; 11:27 AM ET | Comments (1)
