I recently sat on a healthcare panel at Trinity University as part of the Centene REACH symposium. It’s always eye-opening to hear clinicians and non-clinicians passionately debate as to what is wrong with health care. Pretty much it was what you would expect. Everybody pointing at everybody else and a few misguided solutions. Seems like there is a lot of this going on lately. I walked away feeling a bit dejected because it is clear that in a room full of executives and health care policy makers in matching blue blazers, red ties, and sensible pantsuits, there is a huge dearth of understanding when it comes to human behavior, and it is human behavior that drives health care costs. Perhaps that’s what happens when the majority of people in charge don’t actually sit in ERs, or work in clinics, or provide mental health counselling to homeless schizophrenics, or have to tell someone they have cancer and that they should get their things in order. You can’t develop that worldview by just sitting in a committee.
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