Health Care

Stuart Altman: Power, Politics, and Universal Health Care

Stuart Altman
2012

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Stuart Altman for a discussion of the struggle to reform healthcare in the U.S. Altman traces his intellectual odyssey and recalls his long term involvement in national policymaking. In his reflections, he considers the successes and failures of reform in the context of U.S. political culture and history. Analyzing efforts by Presidents from Roosevelt to Obama, he highlights the twin goals of cost reduction and universal access. He concludes with an examination of the Obama plan speculating on the future of cost control. In his conclusion, he...

George C. Halvorson: Reforming American Health Care

George C. Halvorson
2010

Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes George C. Halvorson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Kaiser Permanente, for a discussion of health care reform. Topics covered include: thinking systemically and comparatively about health care; roots of the American crisis; prerequisites for positive change; lessons of managed care systems such as Kaiser, Mayo and Cleveland; the implications of information technology for reengineering American health care; grading Obama's reforms; and lessons learned from a career in health care management.

Key Words: Health Care,...

Alain C. Enthoven: Planning, Policy and Politics

Alain C. Enthoven
2010

In his 500th interview, Conversations host Harry Kreisler welcomes Stanford Professor Alain Enthoven for a discussion of public service and policy analysis. Recalling his tenure in the office of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara during the Kennedy administration, Enthoven describes the efforts to control military expenditures by using systems analysis to consider together weapons acquisition, budgeting, strategy, and national interest. He describes the resistance within the military and Congress, and he reflects on the lessons he learned from this experience.After recalling the...