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Kaiser Permanente CEO Shares Secrets For Fixing American Health Care
New Book Reveals Step-by-Step Plan

OAKLAND, CA – An overwhelming majority of opinion leaders in America agree that the nation must reform its health care system NOW! But consensus disintegrates when discussion narrows down to who pays for reform and how specifically to reorganize the health care delivery system. Into this breach steps George C. Halvorson, who has led two of the most successful nonprofit health plans in the country.

In his latest book, Health Care Reform Now!: A Prescription for Change (ISBN 978-0-7879-9752-6, hardcover, 240 pages, $27.95 US, Jossey-Bass, available in stores August 2007), Halvorson discusses the critical need for universal health care and calls for simplifying and streamlining our health care system in a way that guarantees access for everyone. Proceeds from the sale of Health Care Reform Now! go to community clinics in Oakland, CA.

As Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc.’s Chairman and CEO, Halvorson has a unique and qualified perspective on this dilemma. Halvorson, a health care leader with an impact across the political spectrum, calls for simplifying and streamlining our health care system in a way that guarantees access for everyone. Halvorson explains, step-by-step, how medical best practices, improved patient communication, and better tracking of outcomes can together bring dramatic improvements in our ability to care for everyone without increasing costs.

Health care reform is turning out to be one of the defining issues of the year, with presidential candidates, governors and citizens talking about the crisis in U.S. health care – nearly 50 million people do not have health insurance and health care costs are an astounding 16 percent of the gross domestic product, with costs predicted to get much higher.

These developments are creating what might be a “perfect storm” in favor of health care reform. For that reason NOW is an opportune time to implement reform by creating a health care marketplace based on performance, value, continuous improvement, informed choices, and competitive prices. NOW is the time to make health coverage universal.

“The cost shift from our uninsured population is now approaching 10 percent of private health care dollars,” Halvorson explains. “We could use that same money to cover the uninsured, end the cost shift, and add no expense to overall American care. By year three, if we do it right, universal coverage in America should be free.  One, two, three, free.  It’s a good strategy.”

About George C. Halvorson

George C. Halvorson is Chairman and CEO, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. Halvorson is also author of the 2003 Epidemic of Care: A Call for Safer, Better, and More Accountable Health Care, Strong Medicine, and most recently, Health Care Co-Ops in Uganda. Halvorson has served as an advisor to the governments in Great Britain, Jamaica, Uganda, and Russia on health policy and finance.

Media Contact

For a review copy of Health Care Reform Now!: A Prescription For Change or to arrange an interview with George Halvorson contact:

Maria Meneses
Jossey-Bass, an Imprint of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
mmeneses@wiley.com
tel:415-782-3242
fax: 415-433-4151