Rethinking Conventional Wisdom: An Interview with Zack Cooper

March 30, 2021

The New York Times has written that Zack Cooper’s work is “likely to force a rethinking of some conventional wisdom about health care.”

On Dr. Zeev Neuwirth’s “Reframing Healthcare” podcast, Cooper discusses the rising and unsustainable costs of healthcare in our country and how to go about fixing it. 

Topics covered in the podcast:

•            How Cooper came up with the idea for his new project:  “1 Percent Steps for Health Care Reform Project.”

•            The specific healthcare issues being addressed by these 1% solutions, such as Surprise Medical Billing and Kidney Transplantation.

•            Why Cooper believes employer-based health insurance is contributing to bloated costs that are profoundly harming the health and welfare of working Americans.

•            How the recent unprecedented drop in American life expectancy and the American epidemic of “deaths of despair” might both be linked to healthcare economics.

•            Why the 1% solutions are intentionally focused on incentivizing providers & healthcare organizations rather than attempting to change patient behaviors through cost-sharing and other demand-side interventions. 

Episode #114: Reducing the American Costs of Healthcare, One Percent at a Time

Area of study 
Health