EP388: Merrill Goozner on the Future of Healthcare and Glide Paths to Get There

Merrill Goozner on the Future of Healthcare and Glide Paths to Get There. Three Realistic Glide Paths to Rightsizing Healthcare Spending Relative to GDP. Episode 388.

Stacey Richter talks with Merrill Goozner, former editor in chief of Modern Healthcare and author of The $800 Million Pill, about three concrete glide paths that could bring U.S. healthcare spending down toward a more sustainable share of GDP.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

✅ Why the goal isn't cutting healthcare spending outright but holding cost growth below GDP growth

✅ How high-deductible plans are driving patients to avoid care out of fear of what the bill will be

✅ The three glide paths Goozner proposes: accountable care with real provider budgets, paying primary care more and salarying physicians, and all-payer pricing like Maryland's

✅ Why patients, employers, and taxpayers converging on "no more" is the spark needed to start the transformation

✅ How technology and new market entrants could chip away at incumbent hospitals that have broken trust with their communities

✅ Why removing the incentives that reward low-value care is the throughline connecting all three glide paths

WHY THIS MATTERS

Predictions of a healthcare cost reckoning have been wrong for a decade, but Goozner's framework—paired with concrete mechanisms like all-payer pricing and accountable budgets—gives stakeholders an actual roadmap instead of another vague call to bend the cost curve.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

EP364 with David Muhlestein, PhD, JD: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Other Apps

EP363 with David Scheinker, PhD: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Other Apps

EP370 with Erik Davis and Autumn Yongchu: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Other Apps

=== LINKS ===

🔗 Show Notes with all mentioned links: Episode Page

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00:00 Introduction.

06:24 How is the rise of the high-deductible plan affecting the nation's health?

07:20 What is one of the big issues not being discussed in America today?

08:33 What kind of tipping point is in store for hospitals in this decade?

09:01 What two trends are we going to see in healthcare in the coming decade?

10:50 What are the ways in which the changes in healthcare go well, and what pitfalls do we need to look out for?

11:14 "[This] is about what is sustainable and what is not sustainable."

12:35 "Healthcare is misnamed. It's sick care."

13:12 Why do we need to talk more about who gets sick in this country?

13:51 "Pricing is part of the problem, but volume is the other part [of the problem]."

15:40 "The world is gonna change, you're gonna change, and we're gonna provide you a glide path … because this is what we need as a society."

17:20 What should be the overall goal for healthcare spend?

18:45 EP364 with David Muhlestein, PhD, JD.

19:40 Why do we need to address physician pay?

25:31 Why does the single pricing system create equality?

30:11 EP363 with David Scheinker, PhD.

30:34 EP370 with Erik Davis and Autumn Yongchu.

30:55 What are the three glide paths for the future of healthcare?