Dr. Elias Zerhouni on Fixing Healthcare: Power Shifts, Politics, and Putting Patients First

Former NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni joins us to share what’s broken about U.S. healthcare—and how we can make it work again. From the shift of power from providers to payers, to the need to depoliticize and regionalize care, Dr. Zerhouni breaks down the system’s biggest challenges and how to rebuild it around patients.

As former Director of the National Institutes of Health under President George W. Bush, Presidential Envoy under President Barack Obama, and consultant to the White House medical team of President Ronald Reagan, Dr. Zerhouni gives an insider’s perspective on how healthcare has evolved—and where it must go next.

Learn more: diseaseknowsnopolitics.com Buy his memoir Disease Knows No Politics: Amazon link

Key Topics: • Power shifting from providers to payers • How rational decisions can lead to irrational outcomes • Putting the focus back on patients

Timestamps: 00:55 – Journey through life & medical system 2:23 – Healthcare in 1975 vs. today’s decline in progress 4:46 – Why change is urgently needed 6:46 – The case for a regional system 7:36 – Real-world example: provider vs. payer power 11:55 – Shifting to the customer: the patient 19:43 – How to fix the system 22:45 – Is depoliticization possible?

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