What Thought Leaders are Saying

Here’s a smattering of quotations form some national thought leaders talking about health care reform and other key health care issues, during World Health Care Congress keynote sessions:

“The problem in dealing with health care issues in the world today is not ignorance, but pre-conceived ideas.” Hans Rosling, MD, PhD, Professor of International Healtht, Karolinska Institute, Sweden

“In the past, there were hundreds of health plans, functioning as financial conduits instead of managing care. The new market reality is there are just a few major players, sumo wrestling over market share with total replacements for employer groups.” George C. Halvorson, Chairman and CEO, Kaiser Foundation Health Plans and Hospitals.

“In today’s world, more efficient and effective caregivers simply deprive themselves of income.” George Halvorson

“Physicians in high cost hospitals are much more willing to order and spend in grey areas, without evidence based judgment to do so.” Elliott S. Fisher, MD, MPH, Professor of Medicine and Community and Family Medicine, Dartmouth Medical School

“Interestingly, physicians practicing in regions with the greatest supply of hospital beds, or regions with the greatest supply of specialists, perceive the greatest shortage of those beds or specialists.” Elliott Fisher

“Health care has historically been difficult to measure. It’s very hard to move toward accountability if we can’t measure it well.” Mark McClellan, MD, PhD, Senior Fellow, Director, Engleberg Center for Health Care Reform, and Leonard D. Schaeffer Chair in Health Policy Studies, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution

“When you pay for incremental reforms in funding, you only get incremental reforms in care.” Mark McCellan

“Health care costs are a very solvable problem. 70% of costs are driven by behavior. 74% of costs are confined to just four chronic conditions.” Steven A. Burd, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Safeway, Inc.

“Just like Blackberrys and Smart Phones filled a need for everyone in the audience, there is a deep need for the family health manager to have a mechanism to share store and manage their family health information.” Peter Neupert, Corporate Vice President, Health Solutions Group, Microsoft, Inc.

“There are two things different about privacy of health information versus banking information. Information about your health could lead to discrimination about employment and insurability. That is different than stealing $100 from a bank account.” Peter Neupert.

“Health care has traditionally been horrible about understanding people- consumers.” Reed V. Tuckson, MD FACP, EVP and Chief of Medical Affairs, UnitedHealth Group

“There are two major barriers with health information for consumers. How do you transport information from one setting of care to other settings of care, and how do you educate consumers to be literate about health information?” Reed Tuckson