Health care consulting, health strategy management and marketing communications, and healthcare policy analysis. Serves insurance, HMO, medical, consumer advocacy, foundations and other clients. Provides strategy, reports, articles and strategic implementation. Principal is Kathleen O'Connor, incorrect spellings include Kathleen O'Conner, Kathleen Oconnor, Kathleen Oconner, include Cathleen O'Conner, Cathleen Oconnor, Cathleen Oconner. Web site is oconnorhealthanalyst, not healthanalyst. Publishes the O'Connor report monthly. Author of "The Buck Stops Nowhere."

Section Contents:

Consumer Advocate Says “System is Broke, Let’s Fix It”

About Kathleen O’Connor

PR Contact Info

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Past Press Releases

O’Connor
Health Care Communications

Kathleen O’Connor Biography

Fact Sheet

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 27, 2003

Consumer Advocate Says “System is Broke, Let’s Fix It”
$10,000 Reward Granted to Winner of National Health Care Reform Contest

SEATTLE, WA – With all the states facing stiff budget cuts and spiraling federal Medicare costs, gutsy, independent, and fed-up health care advocate and author, Kathleen O’Connor is launching the nation’s first contest to award innovative proposals with cash prizes, scholarships and the chance to influence legislation. Funded by private contributions, the “Build an American Health System” contest is open to the general public as well as health care advocates, community groups and students. Proposals will be judged by an independent panel of influential healthcare experts from around the nation. Due to an overwhelming response, the application deadline has been extended to March 1st, 2003.

“The healthcare industry is like a deer stuck in headlights. It's frozen without any new ideas as it collapses from its own weight. We have never discussed, as a nation, what a system of health care should do. It’s time we did” stresses O’Connor, author of The Buck Stops Nowhere: Why America’s Healthcare is All Dollars and No Sense. “Change is nearly impossible because the entire system is held hostage to armed camps and special interests. We need fresh, new ideas and we need them now.”

“The contest will get hundreds of opinion leaders engaged in the debate about how to fix the system. The sooner this critical mass of creative, concerned and well-informed Americans really digs in, the sooner we’ll build the awareness we need to foster the fundamental change that’s essential,” suggests Ed Howard, executive vice president for the Alliance for Health Reform in Washington, DC.

“Seniors have no drug coverage and 8.3 million Americans are currently unemployed. No job means no health insurance,” O’Connor says. “What we are witnessing in this economic cycle is a growing trend towards double-digit healthcare cost increases for employers? We have already grown from 30 million uninsured in the ‘80s to over 43 million—roughly the combined population of California, Oregon and Washington.”

Twelve semi-finalists will be selected to present their proposals at the “Build an American Health System” Summit in October 2003 in Seattle, Washington. The winning proposal will use guiding principles, such as those outlined by the Institute of Medicine: Crossing the Quality Chasm or other guiding principles to create a foundation for a sustainable system of healthcare in America. The top three proposals will then be presented to a Congressional delegation so they can present them to the appropriate committees in Congress for their consideration.

O’Connor has posted a $10,000 cash prize for first place and a scholarship for whichever academic institution offers the best proposal.

S. Eric Anderson, Chair, Loma Linda University School of Public Health believes “the contest provides a great forum for faculty, students and healthcare professionals to share ideas and perspectives on health care trends and issues.” The Southern California-based university has agreed to generously match the $10,000 cash prize to create a Remi Miles Kaemke Student Scholarship Endowment in the School of Public Health. Remi Miles Kaemke was Kathleen O’Connor’s 13 year -old son who was killed in a car accident Dec. 22, 1991.

Corporations to colleges, chiropractors to attorneys, CMS employees, physicians, clinic administrators, Canadians and Native Americans have all expressed interest in entering the contest. Students at schools of public health from University of California, Berkeley, to Emory, to Boston to Loma Linda have all shown a deep commitment to the principles of the contest, charted in a Health Care Magna Carta.

Details about contest rules, guidelines and deadlines are posted at www.oconnorhealthanalyst.com/contest.html.

About Kathleen O’Connor

A twenty-plus year veteran of the healthcare industry, Kathleen O’Connor is recognized nationally as healthcare reform advocate and analyst. The 2002 recipient of both Seattle Leadership Tomorrow’s prestigious Edward E. Carlson Outstanding Alumni Award and the International Community Leadership Association’s Distinguished Leadership Award, O’Connor is the author of The Buck Stops Nowhere: Why America’s Healthcare is All Dollars and No Senses. She speaks frequently on healthcare issues, writes a regular column for the Seattle Times (www.seattletimes.com), and is publisher of The O’Connor Report: Insights and Commentaries on Healthcare Today. She has worked in the academic, not-for-profit and for-profit sectors of health care. Her degrees are in Japanese and Comparative Governments. For more information, visit www.oconnorhealthanalyst.com.

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