Gawande talks health reform with NPR, Colbert Report

Atul Gawande, associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at HSPH, spoke with Tom Ashbrook of NPR’s “On Point” about health care and health reform on Jan. 4, 2011. Republicans in the House of Representatives are bringing forward a vote to repeal the reform law, which was passed last March, but Gawande says that “repeal would be a return to stalemate.” Without the new law, he said, by 2019 health insurance will cost “roughly double” what it does now for a family policy and that the federal debt will continue to balloon.

Gawande also appeared on Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” Jan. 5 to discuss his book, “The Checklist Manifesto,” which has just been released in paperback.