Sachin H. Jain: I believe we need more nuanced discussions about our values and willingness to pay for health and innovation

Sachin H. Jain posted the following on LinkedIn:

“Yesterday night’s presidential debate featured a heated exchange on US healthcare policy.

I share it here for those who missed it or wish to rewatch it (apologies in advance for the occasional glitching).

It came late in the debate but was very welcome after the relative eerie silence on healthcare from both candidates throughout their campaigns.

Given the importance of healthcare to the country—and US competitiveness writ large—I believe we need more nuanced discussions about our values and willingness to pay for health and innovation.

How will we have these discussions? And how will we drive these discussions into policies that govern a country’s system of care?

Politicians love soundbites (and believe that’s all the American public can consume) but that’s also why more fundamental health reforms seem so accidental (when it happens) and difficult and far off.

In a world where healthcare is causing medical debt;

where people face an endless maze of utilization management from their insurance companies;

where quality of care is declining in very real and visible ways within their health systems;

where new drugs are being developed but marketed at prices that are prohibitive;

where low clinician morale is translating into worse care for patients—

We desperately need more leadership and dialog on health policy not less.

Let’s hope the upcoming presidential transition brings a clear-eyed, sophisticated view of the problems people face—and real solutions.”

Source: Sachin H. Jain/LinkedIn

Sachin Jain is the President and CEO of SCAN Group and Health Plan and an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. He also serves as a Board Member at The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, an Academic Hospitalist (WOC) at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and a Board Member at America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). He is also a board member of Omada Health.