Flatlined: Resuscitating American Medicine

Acknowledgments

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS It was my great good fortune to work with Marilyn Alice McDonald almost daily for thirteen years, and for three of those years she toiled shoulder to shoulder with me on this book, as dedicated to its completion as I was. Together we undertook the primary research, and we constantly debated our findings and conclusions. Her conservative midwestern judgment and keen intellect kept the book’s content grounded. I alone am responsible for its errors, as Marilyn rarely makes any. Sister Margaret Byrne of New Orleans and now Houston is a dear friend who in 2001 directed me through the Ignation Spiritual Exercises that led me down the unexpected and dangerous path of attempting to reform U.S. health care. I thank her for the wake-up call. My father, O. B. Clifton, whom we lost while I was writing this book, and my mother, Marjorie Jean Clifton, taught me and my brothers the principles and the faith that have guided our lives. God smiled upon our families through our parents. I was indeed fortunate in marriage. My wife of thirty-one years, Karen Florance Clifton, insisted that I had to try to do something about health care, not knowing that in the process she would be uprooted from her home, her friends, and her family. She never wavered, simply stating that we had an obligation to do whatever needed to be done. Karen has been my constant companion and support and, from my first sight of her, the love of my life. She gave up three years of weekends as I researched and wrote this book, and she read each version, encouraging me to keep going until I got it right. I interviewed a number of people, all of whom were open and generous with their time. They include Joe Antos, scholar at the American Enterprise Institute; Judith Cahill, executive director of the Academy of xvii Prelims.qxd 10/10/08 3:27 PM Page xvii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xviii Managed Care Pharmacy; Carolyn Clancy, director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; Terry Clemmer, director of Critical Care Medicine at LDS Hospital, part of the Intermountain Health Care System of Salt Lake City; Janet Corrigan, president and CEO of the National Quality Forum; Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health; Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund; Suzanne Delbanco, CEO of the Leapfrog Group; Carol Diamond, managing director of the health program at the Markle Foundation; Judy Feder, dean of the Georgetown Public Policy Institute; Herb Fritch, chairman, president, and CEO of HealthSpring; James K. Geraughty, chief medical officer of HealthSpring; Paul Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change; K. Lance Gould, professor and Martin Bucksbaum Distinguished Chair in Cardiology at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston; Stuart Guterman, senior program director for Medicare’s future at the Commonwealth Fund; Bill Hermelin, director of government affairs and general counsel at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy; Ada Sue Hinshaw, professor and former dean at the University of Michigan School of Nursing; George Isham, medical director at HealthPartners; Brent James, executive director at the Intermountain Institute for Health Care Delivery Research; Arthur Kellerman, professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine and associate dean for health policy at Emory University School of Medicine; Sid King, managing partner at the Sumner Medical Group; Richard Kronick, professor and chief of the Division of Health Care Sciences in the Department of Preventive and Family Medicine at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine,; Lucian Leape, adjunct professor of health policy in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Harvard University; Jack Meyer, principal of Health Management Associates; Robert E. Moffit, director of the Center for Health Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation; Marilyn Moon, vice president and director of health programs at the American Institutes for Research; Len Nichols, director of the health policy program at the New America Foundation; Nina Owcharenko, senior policy analyst in the Center for Health Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation; Jeffrey S. Passel, senior research associate at the Pew Hispanic Center; Steve E. Phurrough, director of the Coverage and Analysis Group at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Prelims.qxd 10/10/08 3:27 PM Page xviii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xix (his comments were personal, not official); Eugene Rich, Tenet Healthcare Endowed Chair and professor of medicine at the Creighton University...