Dr. Vivian Lee: Solving America's Health Care Crisis | Town Hall Seattle

According to physician and health care CEO Vivian Lee, healthcare is killing our economy—and in many cases, killing us. Millions of Americans can’t get care when they need it, and when they do it can be outrageously expensive and the quality of care varies wildly. Lee joins us with an honest look at the American healthcare system, with insight from her book The Long Fix.

Lee cuts to the heart of the healthcare crisis. The problem with the way medicine is practiced, she explains, is not so much who’s paying, it’s what we are paying for. Insurers, employers, the government, and individuals pay for every procedure, prescription, and lab test, whether or not it makes us better—a model that’s both backward and dangerous. But when doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies are paid to keep people healthy, care improves and costs decrease. Following this model, Lee proposes turning the way we receive care completely inside out. She offers inspiring examples of how this has been done, from physicians’ practices that prioritize preventative care, to hospitals that adapt lessons from manufacturing plants to make them safer, to healthcare organizations that share online how much care costs and how well each physician is caring for patients. Listen in as Lee unpacks a concrete action plan for reform—for employers and other payers, patients, clinicians, and policy makers—to reinvent health care and create a less costly, more efficient, and healthier system for all.

Dr. Vivian Lee (M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A.) is President of Health Platforms, Verily Life Sciences, an Alphabet company whose mission is to apply digital solutions that enable people to enjoy healthier lives. Dr. Lee is the former Dean, SVP and CEO University of Utah Health.