A Call to Action: Taking Back Healthcare for Future Generations by Hank A. McKinnell

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(Hardcover)

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  • Pub. Date: May 2005
  • 256pp
     
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    Product Details

    • Pub. Date: May 2005
    • Publisher:McGraw-Hill Companies, The
    • Format: Hardcover, 256pp

    Synopsis

    Groundbreaking and provocative, A Call to Action reframes the dialogue on healthcare and offers people a way out of the zero-sum, win-or-lose game they now encounter. Distilling more than 30 years of experience in global healthcare, McKinnell provides concrete action steps to build cost-effective, inclusive healthcare that he believes can extend millions of lives and save billions of dollars over the next generation. He addresses:

    • A new, prevention-based approach to employee healthcare
    • Why pharmaceutical companies have lost trust, and what they must do to regain it
    • Why Americans pay more for prescription drugs than people in Canada and Europe
    • How competition can spur the healthcare industry to improve services and contain prices
    • How new technologies can reduce medical errors and improve the dialogues between patient and doctor
    • How we might lose the race between the world’s most insidious virus and the world’s best researchers
    • How we can take more responsibility for our health

    McKinnell also assesses the global challenge of infectious disease, particularly the pandemic of HIV. He demonstrates why this pandemic –the worst in human history –is beyond the scope of governments acting alone —and how, even in the face of devastating global catastrophes, public-private partnerships can deliver real hope.

    The healthcare crisis can be brought under control. Sick-care systems can be changed to put patiens over payers. In this book, McKinnell offers a compelling case for change, and a plan of action to make healthcare systems work for us and our children.

    Hank A. McKinnell joined PfizerJapan in1971 and, in 2001, was named as the twelfth chairman in Pfizer’s 156-year history. McKinnell’s illustrious career at Pfizer spans four decades and has brought him from a country manager position in pre-revolutionary Iran to leadership of the world’s largest pharmaceutical company. Along the way, he received accolades for both his leadership ability and business acumen. In 2003, McKinnell was honored with the United Nations Association of America's Global Leadership Award and, in 2004 he was counted among America's most powerful business leaders by Fortune magazine.

    John Kador is the author and coauthor of ten business books, including the bestselling Net Ready.

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    Biography

    Hank A. McKinnell joined PfizerJapan in 1971 and, in 2001, was named as the twelfth chairman in Pfizer’s 156-year history. McKinnell’s illustrious career at Pfizer spans four decades and has brought him from a country manager position in pre-revolutionary Iran to leadership of the world’s largest pharmaceutical company. Along the way, he received accolades for both his leadership ability and business acumen. In 2003, McKinnell was honored with the United Nations Association of America's Global Leadership Award and, in 2004 he was counted among America's most powerful business leaders by Fortune magazine.

    John Kador is the author and coauthor of ten business books, including the bestselling Net Ready.

    Customer Reviews

    Reframe the Questionby Anonymous

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    July 05, 2005: The best thing about 'A Call to Action' is Hank McKinnell's determination to question every question and to challenge the terms we use. He argues that we confuse ourselves by the very terms we use to frame the healthcare debate. His first question is, 'What is health?' It turns out that there is very little agreement about what we mean by health. Then he shows that healthcare system itself is a misnomer, because what we have is really a sickcare system. We say we want a system to address health, but we are doomed to failure if we expect a system that is designed to address sickness to deliver health. Consider the term 'health insurance.' THis is is misnomer, too, for what we really have is 'sickness insurance.' Let's be precise in how we talk about the problem and we'll have a better shot at finding workable solutions. This precision is the real value of 'A Call to Action.' Recommended.

    A must read!by Anonymous

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    May 23, 2005: Hank McKinnell, Chairman and CEO of Pfizer, has written a compelling book about the state of the healthcare system in the U.S. and abroad. Having spent over 30 years in global healthcare, he understands the problem from many perspectives and he has a vision for the future that is a must read for all those who see the inequities and misdirection in the present system. McKinnell says: ?We have a system that pays for procedures, not cures; interventions, not outcomes; transactions, not transformations.? We are entrenched in a system that is unfair to those who are underinsured or uninsured. A lot of the problems started during World War II, when the U.S. government imposed a wage freeze. To entice skilled workers and to keep them working for the same company, employers offered ?free? health insurance. In the end, workers received less pay to receive this benefit and became less free to make the necessary decisions regarding their own health. According to McKinnel, ?Without price consciousness on the part of patients, doctors have no incentive to keep costs down or to innovate. No one has any real sense of ownership in the system. The entire healthcare system is hijacked by the pretense that someone else is paying for it.? Our healthcare system is focused on costs ?instead of the costs of disease.? The author suggests, ?What if we reframe the debate and consider healthcare not as a cost, but rather as an investment at the very heart of a process focused on health?? McKinnell addresses the anger that we feel about the cost of drugs, advertising, and the disparity in prices paid by Americans vs. Canadians. He answers tough questions and breaks down the barriers and disconnect that we feel with those that administer this system to us. McKinnell explains the differences between the status quo and what he calls ?value-added? competition, where ?all restrictions on choice at the disease or treatment level disappear, including preapprovals for referrals. Information on treatments, alternatives, and providers? expertise would be made available to consumers to enable comparison-shopping. Pricing for treatments would be transparent and billing would be simplified.? McKinnell proposes that we have Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and mandatory catastrophic health insurance. These accounts would reward those who take steps to enhance their own health and well being, while allowing people to make choices based on price, quality of service, and value. There would be tax advantages along with an opportunity to accrue interest and possibly build a nest egg. There are 10 Calls to action that Kinnel suggests: 1. Take Personal Responsibility for Your Health 2. Transform Employee Healthcare Plans 3. Adopt Specialized Medical Courts to Replace the Healthcare Liability System 4. Reform Direct-to-Consumer Advertsising 5. Build a Level Playing Field for Health Savings Accounts 6. Use Trade Agreements to End ?Free Riding? 7. Maintain Incentives for Innovation 8. Demand Electronic Medical Records 9. Report on Corporate Citizenship 10. Initiate a Global Health Corps All royalties from this book are being donated to the Academic Alliance for Healthcare in Africa, which operates a major HIV/AIDS teaching and research clinic in Uganda.


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