Reducing Health-Care Costs in Corporate America

Breaking the Iron Triangle dispels the idea that health care can be delivered at a low cost and in a high quality manner that is accessible to all. Any attempt to implement this cost-quality-access trifecta will further bankrupt our nation and our corporations. $1.2 trillion of our annual health-care expenditures can be avoided by common sense life practices. We must shift the focus of health-care dollars from disease management to empowering individuals to be well. This is the multi-trillion-dollar national conversation to be had.

• Executives searching for ways to control corporate medical costs
• Individuals struggling to understand the confusion in our health care system
• Social Entrepreneurs seeking to make a positive impact on American life

Breaking the Iron Triangle asserts that we cannot change the cost structures of American health care until we shift fundamental assumptions about what it means to be healthy. Only by shifting the focus of health care dollars from disease-management to empowering individual wellness can we turn away from a war on disease and expand ways of living well and enjoying life.

Preparing our nation for a wellness-based future requires two main activities: encouraging entrepreneurs to seek profit-based solutions by investing in wellness programs, and ending regulations that inhibit diversity in health-care options.

Entrepreneurial investors must help us shift the focus of health-care dollars from disease management to empowering individuals to be well. Human resource departments within our corporations must be enabled to become profit centers benefitting both shareholders AND employees.

“The role of employers in improving public health has received minimal attention in discussions of health-care reform, even though the potential for achieving large-scale health and economic impact among working-age adults is undeniable. . . . By 2013 . . . we anticipate we will have saved the Company a cumulative $420 million over 10 years, and will contribute10 cents per share in 2013.”
— Catherine Baase, MD, Global Director of Health Services for the Dow Chemical Company, on February 23, 2009 in testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions

Who is Robert M. Duggan?

An educator, acupuncturist, and healer for over 40 years, Robert “Bob” M. Duggan is a pioneering leader in the emergence of complementary medicine and a groundbreaking voice for wellness in the United States. Duggan has dedicated his career to working with individuals, corporate and academic leaders, policymakers and legislators to bring a great diversity of healing options to the American people. Bringing a rich diversity of perspectives to his work, Duggan holds advanced degrees in philosophy, theology, human relations, intercultural communications, canon law, and acupuncture, and has served as a priest in the US and abroad.

In 1972, when Duggan started studying acupuncture, it was largely illegal across America. He played a leading role in paving the path to create certification, licensing, and accreditation, solidifying acupuncture as a profession and bringing it into the mainstream culture. He founded the Tai Sophia Institute, the first accredited acupuncture school in America, which today offers over a dozen master's degree and certificate programs in the wellness field. Duggan continues to serve Tai Sophia as president emeritus and as a core faculty member.

A nationally recognized thought leader, speaker, and advisor to policymakers and organizations on complementary medicine and wellness, Duggan has testified before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, as well as spoken at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine, and TEDx events.

Duggan holds an M.A. in Human Relations and Community Studies from New York University, an M.A. in Moral Theology from St. Joseph’s Seminary, and an M.A. in Acupuncture from the College of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture in the United Kingdom. He is a nationally-certified Diplomate of Acupuncture and a licensed acupuncturist in the State of Maryland.

Breaking the Iron Triangle is Duggan’s second book. He also wrote Common Sense for the Healing Arts, a collection of essays offering practical wisdom for living well. In addition to writing and consulting with organizations on wellness, Duggan maintains a private practice, working alongside his family at WisdomWell in Columbia, MD, a center for family wellness and a gathering place for the community.

Essay 1 - Four Cherished and Destructive Assumptions

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