June 10, 2009

Gawande gets us talking

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I’m honored to be included in a list of commenters recruited by the Kaiser Health News Service to react to Atul Gawande’s New Yorker piece on “The Cost Conundrum.”

KHN writes:

“The … article is now being called one of the most influential health care stories in recent memory. The New York Times reported that President Obama made it required reading for his staff and cited it at a meeting with Democratic senators last week. His budget chief, Peter Orszag, has written two blog posts about the article. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius referred to it in a speech at the John F. Kennedy School of Government last week. Lawmakers on the Hill also are discussing it. Congressman Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., for instance, says the article has “shifted perceptions on the health care industry.”

Then they asked the following to comment – an interesting range of perspectives:

Robert Blendon, Professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis, Harvard School of Public Health and John F. Kennedy School of Government

Greg Scandlen, Senior Fellow, Heartland Institute

Joseph W. Stubbs, President, American College of Physicians

E. Linda Villarreal, Past President of the Hidalgo-Starr County Medical Society, Internist in Edinburg, Texas

and me.

By the way, if you want to learn about health policy and if you haven’t been following the recently-launched Kaiser Health News Service, you should be.

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