Author Archives

Gail Wilensky, PhD, is an economist and Senior Fellow at Project HOPE, an international health foundation.

• JAMA Forum: Addressing Social Issues Affecting Health to Improve US Health Outcomes

  By Gail Wilensky, PhD on March 16, 2016

  

  In a recent JAMA Forum, Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, wrote about tackling the social determinants of health as a process that will require taking “small steps on a long journey.” I agree with him about the complexity raised by the… Read More ›

• JAMA Forum: The Agency Under Threat That We Need Now More than Ever

  By Gail Wilensky, PhD on September 30, 2015

  

  Two decades after a near-death experience, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the only federal agency devoted to health services research and improving the safety and quality of US health care, is at risk once again. Last June,… Read More ›

• JAMA Forum: A New Focus on Prescription Drug Spending

  By Gail Wilensky, PhD on July 1, 2015

  

  A chorus of concern over the cost of prescription drugs for both patients and the health system has been growing louder. Spending on prescription drugs surged 13% last year to a record $374 billion, according to a report from IMS… Read More ›

• JAMA Forum: The “Doc Fix” Is Over, But Unresolved Concerns Linger

  By Gail Wilensky, PhD on April 21, 2015

  

  The US Congress has finally passed legislation to repeal a much-disliked formula used to pay physicians who care for patients covered by Medicare—an action that ended a long-time tradition of approving additional funds for the Medicare program (the so-called doc… Read More ›

• JAMA Forum: Why Does the Affordable Care Act Remain So Unpopular?

  By Gail Wilensky, PhD on January 7, 2015

  

  In mid-November, just as the second enrollment period for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was starting, a Gallup poll indicated that only 37% of the US public approved of the ACA—a record low percentage. Since the ACA… Read More ›

• JAMA Forum: The Challenges of Reforming Graduate Medical Education Payments

  By Gail Wilensky, PhD on October 2, 2014

  

  A recent report by an Institute of Medicine (IOM) committee on the financing and governance of graduate medical education (GME) considered an important question for health care in the United States: to what extent does the current GME system, which… Read More ›

• JAMA Forum: Reading the Tea Leaves on Proposed Health Insurance Premium Hikes in a Post-ACA World

  By Gail Wilensky, PhD on July 3, 2014

  

  Health economists and other experts generally expect that consumers will pay more for health insurance premiums year after year. That’s because 1 or more of the components of premiums—the cost of medical claims, administrative costs, or profits—are usually anticipated to… Read More ›