EP248: United We Could Definitely Stand Against Rising Health Care Costs, With Mark Blum From America’s Agenda

In this health care podcast, I speak with Mark Blum from America’s Agenda. When I was talking with Mark, I kind of pictured him bearing a flag with a peace sign on it.

His point for unions and employers alike is this: Instead of ripping each other into shreds at the bargaining table over health care, maybe work together proactively. Clip the reasons for rising health care costs in the first place. These reasons include, but certainly are not limited to, excess middleman profits that do not contribute to patient value, private equity earning profits on the backs of patients and payers, a health care system that rewards volume over value … I could go on and on.

But here’s a way out of this tangled web we’ve been forced into: Instead of bowing and scraping at the boots of special interests driving up the costs of health care for Americans—and when I say Americans, I mean bosses or labor alike—instead of flailing at the mercy of these forces, change the game. Gang up together and proactively demand to get what you pay for.

Mark and I talk about two very concrete examples on how to do this. Mark and the team at America’s Agenda, for example, saved New Jersey $1.6 billion (that’s billion with a B) over the past three years on pharmacy benefits alone. That’s a whole lot more shekel than could have been generated by haggling over who pays for what of a pharmacy bill that is $1.6 billion too high. We also talk about direct primary care and how much direct primary care—not owned by a private equity, by the way—how much direct primary care can improve patient outcomes while, at the same time, reducing costs. Mark has some learnings here, too.

You can learn more at americasagenda.org and solidaritus.net. 

Mark Blum is executive director of America’s Agenda, an alliance of labor unions, businesses, health care providers, and government leaders with a common mission of guaranteeing access to affordable, high-quality health care for every American. Under Mark’s direction, America’s Agenda has defined widely adopted principles of high-value care delivery design and achieved an unrivaled record of success in building winning statewide health care reform campaigns. Managed Care magazine recently featured an America’s Agenda–designed strategy that netted more than $1 billion in prescription drug savings for New Jersey’s public workers during 2018 and 2019 and is projected to save the state nearly $2.5 billion over five years without cutting public employee prescription benefits. Mark serves also as president and CEO of SolidaritUS Health, a leading-edge, labor-owned direct primary care provider whose innovative approaches to relationship-based care delivery were featured recently in Modern Healthcare magazine. SolidaritUS Health has revolutionized patient experience and improved quality of care while reducing employer health costs substantially and helping save thousands of US industrial jobs from being offshored.

Mark, who has served as a special adviser on hospital finances to leadership of the California legislature, serves currently as an appointee of Governor Phil Murphy to the New Jersey State Health Benefits Value and Quality Task Force. Mark was the first male ever elected to the board of directors of the American Medical Women’s Association. Internationally, he has served as adviser to Cambodian textile workers organizing the first labor unions in their country’s history.