The Author

George C. Halvorson was named chairman and chief executive officer of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, headquartered in Oakland, Calif. in March 2002.  Kaiser Permanente is the nation’s largest nonprofit health plan, serving more than 8.7 million members.

Mr. Halvorson has more than 30 years of health care management experience. He was formerly President and CEO of HealthPartners, headquartered in Minneapolis and has held several senior management positions with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, prior to that time.

Mr. Halvorson is the author of comprehensive books on the U.S. health care system including the recently released Health Care Reform Now!  He also wrote Health Care Co-ops in Uganda, Strong Medicine and Epidemic of Care, which Warren Buffet said was “by far the clearest explanation of how we have gotten to where we are in health care and what is likely to happen.”

George Halvorson is currently writing a new book about racial prejudice around the world.  He has served as an advisor to the governments of Uganda, Great Britain, Jamaica, and Russia on issues of health policy and financing. 

Widely credited with supporting the successful rollout of Kaiser’s multi-billion dollar information technology initiative, George Halvorson has won numerous awards for his commitment to health technology, including the Modern Healthcare CEO IT Achievement Award.  He has written numerous articles on subjects ranging from health information technology to the changing marketplace in respected publications including Health Affairs.

Mr. Halvorson serves on a number of boards, including those of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), where he was the 2007-2008 chairman, and the Alliance of Community Health Plans.  He is the current president of the International Federation of Health Plans, secretary of the Partnership for Quality Care with SEIU, and a member of the Harvard Kennedy School Healthcare Delivery Policy Group.  Mr. Halvorson also serves on the Institute of Medicine Task Force on Evidence Based Medicine and on the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System.

Other Works and Recent Coverage

George Halvorson PowerPoint on Health Care Industrial Revolution
Richard L Reece
medinnovationblog.blogspot.com

Coverage Crisis [pdf]
Brad Cain
HealthLeaders Media, May 2007

A Proposal To Cover The Uninsured In California
George C. Halvorson, Francis J. Crosson, and Steve Zatkin
Health Affairs, April 2007

Think you know European healthcare? [pdf]
George Halvorson
Modern Healthcare, February 2007