Rethinking Reform: Ken Terry on Primary Care, Cost, and the Future of U.S. Healthcare

In this episode of SoundPractice, host Mike Sacopulos talks with veteran healthcare journalist Ken Terry about his new book, Beyond Medicare for All: Cracking the Code of the Healthcare Affordability Crisis, published by the American Association for Physician Leadership.

Terry, a former senior editor at Medical Economics has written for publications including Medscape Medical News, WebMD, cio.com, InformationWeek, and Fierce Healthcare. He is the author of two previous books on healthcare reform, Rx for Health Care Reform (Vanderbilt University Press, 2007) and Physician-Led Healthcare Reform: A New Approach to Medicare For All (AAPL, 2020). He also contributed to Stephen K. Klasko's 2023 book, Feelin' Alright: How the Message in The Music Can Make Healthcare Healthier.

In this interview, Terry explains why he abandoned the assumption that Medicare for All will ever become reality — and lays out an alternative model built around empowered, salaried primary care groups, all-payer hospital rates, and a new “consumer council” to help guide difficult coverage decisions.

Topics Discussed:

* Why primary care physicians should lead basic care — and how that could reverse primary care's decline
* The role of physician assistants and nurse practitioners in a primary-care-led system
* How corporate practice of medicine laws could be strengthened, state by state, to give PCPs more independence
* Why insurers and hospitals might support this model rather than fight it
* Maryland's all-payer, global-budget hospital system as a template for reform
* A modified approach for rural healthcare, where physician scarcity changes the equation
* Caring for an aging population and the unresolved challenge of long-term care financing
* The idea of a “consumer council,” inspired by the late David Eddy, to help guide coverage decisions for new technologies
* What's next for Terry, including plans to bring these ideas to Congress and the 2028 presidential campaigns

Learn more about the American Association for Physician Leadership at www.physicianleaders.org.