Health insurers, hospitals, doctors, and the government are fighting each other to gain control over the $2 trillion health-care system, and patients could be the losers in this battle for power and profit. In her new book, Who Killed Health Care? (McGraw-Hill, June 2007), Harvard Business School professor Regina Herzlinger argues that the health-care system can be redesigned to produce better, less costly health care only if individuals are allowed to take back control over the decisions that deeply affect their health and their pocketbooks. Herzlinger makes the case that consumers would be better off buying their own insurance coverage rather than allowing employers and government to decide what health coverage they must have--a coverage paid for by lower wages and higher taxes.

Could consumer-directed health care cure the problems plaguing the U.S. health system? What are the actual prospects for reform? Following Herzlinger’s presentation, panelists will discuss these and other issues. Panelists will include Paul Fronstin, director of the health research and education program at the Employee Benefit Research Institute; Michael O’Grady, former assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and Joel White, former staff director of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee. AEI’s Robert B. Helms will moderate the discussion.