There are many different narratives around why healthcare costs too much. Some reasons include overutilization, cross-subsidization, administrative overhead, scientific innovation, defensive medicine, and more. But narratives without data are just stories that people like to believe. 

To better understand how US healthcare leaders can change their own personal narratives to match reality, Ashish Jha, MD, Dean, Brown University School of Public Health, and Ellen Zane, Chief Executive Officer Emeritus, Tufts Medical Center, shared their perspectives at last year's Oliver Wyman Health Innovation Summit.

In the below conversation, Ashish and Ellen address how to improve affordability, utilization, and unit costs, and examine to what extent the US narrative that high costs pay for innovation, high-end clinical excellence, and choice is true.

Watch the Conversation

Memorable Moments from this Conversation

• Ellen: American consumers tend to want access to everything when they want it. The healthcare appetite is driving healthcare costs. 

• Ashish: When you look at US utilization patterns, usage is pretty average. But the problem isn’t utilization.

• Ellen: There can be as much as a 40 percent disparity from one healthcare system to the other.