Obamacare, Story Telling, and the American Healthcare Gridlock

What is the history of American healthcare reforms through the past four administrations? Americans seem to value choice and freedom a lot, so does it mean that a single-payer health system would never work because of such a cultural factor? How should we approach the quintessential problem of balancing storytelling and the day-to-day politics when rolling out long-lasting policies?...

In this episode, Prof. Sherry Glied, former Assistant Secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services under President Obama, explains the cultural and political reasons of the current American healthcare gridlock.

In 2013, Sherry Glied was named Dean of New York University’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. From 1989-2013, she was Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. She was Chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management from 1998-2009. On June 22, 2010, Glied was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the Department of Health and Human Services, and served in that capacity from July 2010 through August 2012. She had previously served as Senior Economist for health care and labor market policy on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers in 1992-1993, under Presidents Bush and Clinton, and participated in the Clinton Health Care Task Force. She has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Social Insurance, and served as a member of the Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking.

Glied’s principal areas of research are in health policy reform and mental health care policy. Her book on healthcare reform, "Chronic Condition," was published by Harvard University Press in January 1998. Her book with Richard Frank, "Better But Not Well: Mental Health Policy in the U.S. since 1950," was published by The Johns Hopkins University Press in 2006. She is co-editor, with Peter C. Smith, of "The Oxford Handbook of Health Economics," which was published by the Oxford University Press in 2011.

Prof. Sherry Glied