Public Affairs Entry: Radio Smart Talk Healthcare in 2020

Radio Smart Talk for Wednesday, February 1, 2012:

The only sure way to reduce healthcare costs is to use the system less.  So says Steve Jacob, the author of the new book Health Care in 2020: Where Uncertain Reform, Bad Habits, Too Few Doctors, and Skyrocketing Costs Are Taking Us.  Jacob writes that much of the blame for the increasing costs of healthcare can be placed on American lifestyles that include smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, poor diet and binge drinking. 

Jacob will appear on Wednesday's Radio Smart Talk to discuss what impact the ''Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act'' or reform will have on healthcare, whether the law will survive and will it matter if it doesn't.

Jacob says 20 cents of every dollar will be spent on healthcare over the next 10 years and unless big changes occur, there won't be enough doctors or nurses to provide care. 

It is not a pretty picture Jacob describes.  Tune in to learn more about this thought provoking topic.

Read Steve Jacob's blog.

Learn more about the Affordable Care Act (reform law):

Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation

Healthcare.gov

The Commonwealth Fund: Health Reform Resouce Center

Listen to an edited version of the original one-hour program: