A Call to Action

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; and, 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 patients 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.