The Most Critical Health Care Issues for the Next President to Address
Authors: Stephen M. Shortell, Diane Rittenhouse
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (2016)

Ideas and Opinions6 December 2016The Most Critical Health Care Issues for the Next President to AddressStephen M. Shortell, PhD, MPH, MBA and Diane Rittenhouse, MD, MPHStephen M. Shortell, PhD, MPH, MBAFrom University of California, Berkeley, and University of California, San Francisco, California. and Diane Rittenhouse, MD, MPHFrom University of California, Berkeley, and University of California, San Francisco, California.Author, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/M16-2471 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail The most important action the next president can take to advance health and health care in the United States is to articulate an overarching vision and set of core principles to guide the nation toward better health. The vision should be to ensure that all people living in the United States have the opportunity to live healthy, productive lives. This vision would recognize the decades of research revealing that the social determinants of health—our physical and social environments and health behaviors—are the major determinants of our health (1).Five core principles that the president could highlight are as follows. First, ...References1. McGinnis JM, Williams-Russo P, Knickman JR. The case for more active policy attention to health promotion. Health Aff (Millwood). 2002;21:78-93. [PMID: 11900188] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar2. Bradley EH, Taylor LA. The American Health Care Paradox: Why Spending More Is Getting Us Less. New York: PublicAffairs; 2013. Google Scholar3. Lavizzo-Mourey R. Halfway there? Health reform starts now. JAMA. 2016;315:1335-6. [PMID: 26940727] doi:10.1001/jama.2016.1732 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar4. Shortell SM. Bridging the divide between health and health care. JAMA. 2013;309:1121-2. [PMID: 23512058] doi:10.1001/jama.2013.887 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar5. Curtis CJ, Clapp J, Niederman SA, Ng SW, Angell SY. US food industry progress during the National Salt Reduction Initiative: 2009–2014. Am J Public Health. 2016;106:1815-9. [PMID: 27552265] doi:10.2105/AJPH.2016.303397 CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar6. Partnership for a Healthier America. 2015 Annual Progress Report. Washington, DC: Partnership for a Healthier America; 2016. Google Scholar7. Oberlander J. From Obamacare to Hillarycare—Democrats' health care reform agenda. N Engl J Med. 2016;375:1309-1311. [PMID: 27627459] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar8. Jost TS, Pollack H. Key Proposals to Strengthen the Affordable Care Act. New York: The Century Foundation; 23 November 2015. Google Scholar9. Clinton H. My vision for universal, quality, affordable health care. N Engl J Med. 2016. [PMID: 27681881] CrossrefMedlineGoogle Scholar10. Kocot SL, White R. Medicare ACOs: incremental progress, but performance varies. Health Affairs Blog. 21 September 2016. Accessed at http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2016/09/21/medicare-acos-incremental-progress-but-performance-varies on 24 October 2016. Google Scholar Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: From University of California, Berkeley, and University of California, San Francisco, California.Disclosures: Disclosures can be viewed at www.acponline.org/authors/icmje/ConflictOfInterestForms.do?msNum=M16-2471.Corresponding Author: Stephen M. Shortell, PhD, MPH, MBA, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, 50 University Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720.Current Author Addresses: Dr. Shortell: School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, 50 University Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720.Dr. Rittenhouse: Department of Family Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 500 Parnassus Avenue, Room MU 308-E, San Francisco, CA 94143-0900.Author Contributions: Conception and design: S.M. Shortell, D. Rittenhouse.Drafting of the article: S.M. Shortell, D. Rittenhouse.Critical revision of the article for important intellectual content: S.M. Shortell, D. Rittenhouse.Final approval of the article: S.M. Shortell, D. Rittenhouse.This article was published at www.annals.org on 1 November 2016. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Metrics Cited byHealth Insurance and Blood Pressure Control 6 December 2016Volume 165, Issue 11Page: 816-817KeywordsFoodHealth careHealth care providersHealth insuranceMotivationPainPrevention, policy, and public healthPublic policyTaxesVision ePublished: 1 November 2016 Issue Published: 6 December 2016 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2016 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...