Over the past 10 years, workers’ wages have risen 54% while health care prices have gone up 230% in the U.S. That huge discrepancy means that what consumers spent on health care 10 years ago represented 17% of total compensation compared to 37% now.
In this webinar, hear from AHCJ Health Beat Leader for Health Policy and Insurance Joe Burns as he talks to Cora Opsahl, director of the health fund for the Building Service 32BJ labor union in New York City; and Gloria Sachdev, Pharm.D., president and CEO of the Employers’ Forum of Indiana, about the rising spiral of health care spending and the impact it’s having on employers and families.
Both have led fights on behalf of employers over hospital prices. Both see their efforts as part of a growing trend of employers fighting back against rising health care spending, which leaves businesses with less money for raises and families less money in the bank.
Learn how to find federal health spending data and real life stories that will help bring this issue alive for your readers.
Presentations
Joseph Burns is AHCJ’s health beat leader on health policy and insurance. He’s an independent journalist based in Brewster, Mass., who has covered health care, health policy and the business of care since 1991. Burns has written for a variety of publications, including The New York Times, Fortune, Hospitals & Health Networks, and Medical Economics, among others. Early in his journalism career, Burns worked as a reporter in Connecticut, first for The Wallingford Post (a weekly), and then The Meriden Record-Journal (a daily), and later for The Hartford Courant (the largest daily newspaper in the state and the nation’s oldest newspaper). For The Courant, he was a reporter, copy editor and regional news editor. During this time, he also taught news writing at the University of Connecticut.
Cora Opsahl is director of the 32BJ Health Fund, a self-funded plan that provides affordable, comprehensive and innovative health coverage to 200,000 union members and their families. Opsahl has led the implementation of multiple benefit changes: removing the New York-Presbyterian hospital system and physicians from the network; transitioning to a new pharmacy vendor and pharmacy group purchasing coalition; and implementing an expanded Centers of Excellence program administered by Mount Sinai Health System. These efforts saved over $35 million in 2022. Prior to joining the 32BJ Health Fund, Opsahl spent 12 years with Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefit manager, where she held a variety of roles, including in Medicare Part D, strategy and acquisitions, operations, and account management. She holds an MBA from Saint Louis University.
Gloria Sachdev, Pharm.D., is the president and CEO of the Employers’ Forum of Indiana, a nonprofit employer-led multi-stakeholder health care coalition. Founded in 2001, the forum aims to align payment with the value of services provided to employers and patients by focusing on hospital prices and quality, value-based health benefit and payment and on health policy. Sachdev also is an adjunct associate professor at Purdue College of Pharmacy. She received her Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Pharmacy degrees from the University of Oklahoma and completed a primary residency at the VA in Madison, Wisc. Also, she has practiced in primary care physicians’ offices managing patients with chronic diseases and founded a consulting company aimed at integrating clinical pharmacists into team-based health care settings.
