Dr. Mike Katz brings over forty years of dedicated service to the U.S. healthcare industry, a journey that began as a teenager working as a phlebotomist in New Haven hospitals. His diverse roles have ranged from caring for critically ill children as a pediatric critical care anesthesiologist to managing and advising surgical facilities and health systems, focusing on operational efficiencies and health system integration. He has devoted decades of his career to the tireless pursuit of refining and advancing healthcare policies at both the state and national levels. Dr. Mike possesses a profound understanding of America’s health system, acknowledging its strengths, successes, weaknesses, and instances where it has fallen short, impacting patients and communities.

(Dr. Mike Katz Discusses Delaware Healthcare Issues with Senator Tom Carper - 2008)

Undoubtedly, America’s healthcare sector, comprising seventeen percent of the nation’s GDP, stands as one of the most complex industries. Its sheer size and complexities, coupled with the gravity of life-and-death decisions, defy conventional business models fixated on profit maximization. Guided by dedicated and tirelessly committed highly skilled nurses, doctors, technicians, and aids, the system strives to deliver care within limited resources, safeguarding precious lives rather than adhering strictly to profit-oriented models.

Yet the current state of America’s healthcare is marked by excessive costs, inefficiencies, and fragmentation, lacking coordination among providers and services. It is a system characterized by chaos, bloat, and poor management, exacerbated by evolving public health demands and reactive political policies. Despite substantial yearly expenditures, the system often overlooks and harms individuals, failing to contribute to the creation of a healthy society.

(Dr. Mike Katz and other physicians meet with U.S. Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell on Capital Hill to review U.S. Senate Healthcare Legislation - 1994)

Dr. Mike Katz is steadfast in his commitment to ensuring universal access to high-quality, affordable healthcare, regardless of zip code. His plan requires a paradigm shift in the focus of America’s health system – from treating illness to preventing it by advocating healthy behaviors and lifestyles, starting from the prenatal and early childhood years. Additionally, he emphasizes the critical integration of mental health into health and secondary education systems, recognizing its significance in promoting the well-being of both children and adults.

Dr. Mike possesses the medical, business, and policy knowledge, experience, and upstream leadership skills necessary to guide the U.S. Senate and Congress in establishing a health system focused on coordinated population and community health. Such a system will provide high-quality, affordable healthcare for every citizen, integrating not-for-profit, academic, and for-profit systems to enhance consumer choice and operational efficiencies.

(Speaking with U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman, Dr. Mike Katz provides update on U.S. Health system nursing and physician shortages - 2008)

An upstream-driven U.S. Health System that recognizes the interconnectedness of health, education, and economic success, promises consistent access to high-quality affordable healthcare. Dr. Mike Katz’s integrated approach leaves no community out-of-reach of living meaningful healthy lives, from America’s urban centers, to its remote farmlands.