Over the past decade, American workers' wages have increased by 54 percent, while health care costs have risen by 230 percent. This huge difference means that consumers' health care costs are now 37 percent of their total compensation, compared to 17 percent a decade ago.
In this webinar, Joe Burns, AHCJ’s health policy and insurance leader, speaks with Cora Opsahl, health fund director for New York City’s Building Service 32BJ labor union, and Gloria Sachdev, PharmD, president and CEO of the Indiana Employers Forum, about the spiraling health care costs and the impact it’s having on employers and families.
Both men have led fights on behalf of employers over hospital fees, and they see their efforts as part of a growing trend of employers fighting back against rising health care costs that leave companies with less money for raises and families with less in their bank accounts.
Learn how to find federal health care cost data and real stories that will help bring the issue to life for your readers.
Joseph Burns is AHCJ's Healthcare Leader for Health Policy and Insurance. An independent journalist based in Brewster, Massachusetts, he has covered health care, health policy and the business of health care since 1991. Burns has contributed to a variety of publications, including The New York Times, Fortune, Hospitals & Health Network, and Medical Economics. Early in his journalism career, he worked as a reporter in Connecticut, first for The Wallingford Post (weekly), then the Meriden Record-Journal (daily), and then the Hartford Courant (the state's largest daily newspaper and the oldest in the United States). At the Courant, he served as a reporter, copy editor and regional news editor. During this time, he taught news writing at the University of Connecticut.
Cora Opsahl is a Director of 32BJ Health Fund, a self-funded plan that provides affordable, comprehensive and innovative health coverage to 200,000 members and their families. Opsahl led the implementation of multiple benefit changes, including moving NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital System and physicians out of network, transitioning to a new pharmacy vendor and pharmacy group purchasing coalition, and implementing an expanded Center of Excellence program administered by Mount Sinai Health System. These efforts have saved over $35 million in 2022. Prior to joining 32BJ Health Fund, Opsahl spent 12 years at Express Scripts, a pharmacy benefits management company, in a variety of roles including Medicare Part D, strategy and acquisitions, operations, and account management. She holds an MBA from Saint Louis University.
Gloria Sachdev, PharmD, is president and CEO of the Indiana Employers Forum, 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 price and quality, value-based health care benefits and payment, and health care policy. Sachdev is also an adjunct associate professor at the Purdue College of Pharmacy. She earned her BS and PharmD from the University of Oklahoma and completed her primary residency at the VA in Madison, Wisconsin. She also practiced in primary care physician offices managing patients with chronic diseases and founded a consulting firm focused on integrating clinical pharmacists into team-based care settings.
