A Call to Action:

Taking Back Healthcare for Future Generations

by Hank McKinnell

Chairman and CEO, Pfizer Inc.

with John Kador

A Call to Action is a book designed to be discussed, argued with, and ultimately acted upon.  Hank McKinnell believes the healthcare system in the United States is not a healthcare system at all but rather a “sick-care system,” focused on “managing costs, avoiding costs and, failing all else, shifting costs to someone, anyone else.”  Based on his over 30 years in global healthcare, his prescriptions for change require actions at the individual, corporate, and societal level.

This was a very satisfying project on many levels.   Pfizer is the largest research-based pharmaceutical firm in the world.  In the course of working on the book, Pfizer, along with the rest of the industry, came under relentless attack.  To his credit, in the book Hank McKinnell acknowledges that some of the criticisms were self-inflicted.  Resisting the temptation to use this book to respond to those criticism point by point, McKinnell takes the discussion about healthcare to a whole new level.  The book ends with ten action items that he believes must be part of the debate if we are to have healthcare systems that we can proudly leave to our children. 

I was especially gratified that Hank McKinnell accepted my recommendation that before he addressed his take on healthcare, readers need to know more about the man, his story, and the very human reason why he wrote the book at this time.  The result is an opening chapter that is remarkably self-disclosing and, I believe, makes his case much more compelling precisely because so many readers will resonate to it.