chronic illnesses, many of which could be completely avoided, we have to figure out a way to get more people on the healthy bandwagon as a way of life. Consider this: Two-thirds of all people who have ever been 65 or older—in all the world and all of human history—are alive right now. And if they are in the U.S., they probably have at least two chronic diseases, according to the Centers for Disease Control. In 1965, the year that Medicare was launched to pay for the healthcare needs of Americans over the age of 65, the average life span was 70.2 years. Today the average life span in the U.S. is 78.7 years, but the health of those over 65 is abysmal. People are living longer, but those extra years are not characterized by good health. No one ever planned on that combination of events when Medicare was initiated, but today we are paying for 8 extra years of very unhealthy, very expensive life. If consumers took better care of themselves, the years could be even longer and the costs far less.
As a result, the budgetary strain of Medicare on our national economy is beyond the breaking point. According to an op-ed piece by Steven Rattner, a counselor to the Treasury secretary in the Obama administration, “Medicare was under-financed by a staggering $37 trillion as of Sept. 30 [2011]. That’s the amount—about two and a half times the annual output of the United States economy—that would have to be deposited into the Medicare trust funds to adhere to
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Author: Lisa Suennen
Lisa Suennen is a managing director with GE Ventures and former managing member of the Psilos Group, as well as the co-author of Tech Tonics: Can Passionate Entrepreneurs Heal Healthcare With Technology? and author of the blog Venture Valkyrie.
Prior to 2014, Lisa was a Senior Advisor to Psilos Group, a healthcare-focused venture capital and growth equity firm that focuses on the healthcare information technology, healthcare services and medical device sectors. Lisa was a co-founder of Psilos Group and a Partner at the firm from 1998-2014.
Prior to Psilos, Lisa was at Merit Behavioral Care (formerly American Biodyne, Inc), an $800mm behavioral healthcare company where she held various senior executive roles from its early start-up days through exit. Previously, Lisa held various positions in marketing and product management in companies in the high technology field.
Lisa was a Board Member of the Dignity Health Foundation, and Board Member of health IT company Beyond Lucid Technologies and is still a Board Member of medical device company AngioScore, a member of the Qualcomm Life Advisory Board, and an Advisor to the California Health Care Foundation Innovation Fund. Lisa also previously served as an Advisor to innovation consulting firm Accelevate, Inc. as a member of the Advisory Board of the U.S. Health and Human Services Office of the National Coordinator Investing in Innovations program.
Lisa holds an M.A. in political science, a B.A. in political science and a B.A. in mass communications, all from the University of California, Berkeley, where she is now Vice Chair of the National Advisory Council of the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University. Lisa is also a visiting lecturer at the U.C. Berkeley Haas School of Business where she teaches the annual course on healthcare venture capital.
Lisa also writes a widely read blog on healthcare and healthcare investing at www.venturevalkyrie.com. She has recently published her first book, entitled: Tech Tonics, Can Passionate Entrepreneurs Heal Healthcare with Technology, coauthored with Dr. David Shaywitz.
View all posts by Lisa Suennen