Health Care and How to Fix It (According to The Rogue!)

Do not let your eyes gloss over, damn it!! It’s a universal topic that gets jawboned ad nausea and sculpted, all to often, to fit a political objective.

On Tuesday evening, May 12th, Dorothy and I returned to R. J. Julia for a book event and discussion with Jonathan Bush (nephew of George Herbert Walker), author of “Where Does It Hurt?” Jonathan’s dad and I have been friends for 62 plus years. Quoting from the book jacket, “A Bold New Remedy For The Sprawling And Wasteful Health Care Industry,” the tome is an entrepreneur’s guide to fixing health care.

“Where Does It Hurt,” was number six on The New York Times Best Seller List 6/1/2014.

One of the blurbs, authored by Jeffrey Flier, MD, dean of Harvard Medical School, highlights the dilemma that confronts all of us!

Flier: “Health care has successfully resisted organizational innovation to the detriment of our health and our economy. In ‘Where Does It Hurt?’ Jonathan gives exciting accounts of current innovation, and irreverently imagines an attainable future in which a vibrant medical marketplace is driven by health entrepreneurs, of which he himself is a prime example. Patients, physicians, and policy wonks alike would be well served to take the provocative and illuminating tour.”

Jonathan is CEO and cofounder of Athenahealth, one of the fastest-growing technology companies in the country. He has worked in health care for two decades.

Aside from Jonathan’s remarks and the wonderful excerpts he read from his book, the health care discussion following his presentation proved to be enlightening and provocative with a great many in attendance joining in.

One memory that this 83-year-old will reflect upon fondly occurred as we took our seats. I’ve been distressed lately by the morass and quagmire that has overtaken this once proud country and pitted too many citizens against each other with little or no leadership from places and people vested with that responsibility. As we sat down, a broad shouldered, big, handsome curl-headed young man took his seat next to me and introduced himself. It was Ted Kennedy Jr. there to listen to his friend Jonathan and participate in the discussion that ensued. For me, seeing these two vibrant, accomplished, energetic young men – from dynasties at opposite ends of the political spectrum – engage in such productive dialogue gives me hope that their generation can help us stop the drift and avoid running aground, forever beached at ebb tide.

Returning to R.J. Julia five months after the launch of my book, “The Rogue’s Road To Retirement” in January was an added dividend to a remarkable evening. In the interim I’ve been busy, appearing on WTNH’s Connecticut Style show and speaking at the Corinthian Yacht Club in Essex, CT; Evergreen Woods, a retirement community in North Branford; the Enfield Senior Center; book signing events at Barnes and Noble in Fairfield and R.J. Julia in Madison; and signing books at a jam-packed street fair in my home town of Bay Shore, Long Island. This summer, I’ll be doing five events, leading off with a reading at Essex Meadows, a retirement community in Essex, CT. Daughter Jenny, my agent Anna Termine and my much better half Dorothy continue to be my chief cheerleaders and pit crew, with a big assist from our Staples store in Old Saybrook.

Writing has taken me in directions that I would never have imagined. I still believe that the best is yet to come. Stay well! Be sure to visit us – and the Griswold Inn Store in Essex (they’ve been very supportive of the book) – if you’re in Essex or on Fire Island. Keep writing!

George