LOWN26: Confronting Healthcare Affordability

The healthcare affordability crisis isn’t a partisan issue. It’s a human one. This one-day conference brings together leaders who recognize that solutions won’t come from staying in our corners. It will come from those brave enough to step out of them. 

LOWN26 convenes policymakers, clinicians, hospital leaders, business executives, and union organizers, united by one conviction: care shouldn’t crush the finances of American families.  

Through open debate and honest exchange, we’ll break down silos, stress-test assumptions, and identify areas of consensus. The goal is not performance or positioning, but clarity about where progress is possible and what responsibility demands. A special focus will be placed on young clinicians whose voices are vital to the work ahead.

After decades of gridlock as our nation’s health declines, there’s no more time for hesitation and finger pointing. Where things go from here depends on leaders willing to rethink what’s possible and act with boldness and purpose.

Are you ready to shape the future rather than wait for it? Join us at LOWN26!

All events held in plenary on the 3rd floor of the LeMeridien Hotel in Cambridge, MA.

Every speaker on this panel arrives with a worldview shaped by a distinct place on the political spectrum, from free-market right to progressive left, and each has watched that worldview collide with political reality. This panel cuts to the chase: which elements of these frameworks survive first contact with the real world, and where do the Venn diagrams overlap? As working families face impossible choices between care and financial survival, finding common ground isn’t a thought experiment, it’s a moral imperative.

• Erin C. Fuse Brown, JD, Professor of Health Services, Policy & Practice, Brown University School of Public Health (Moderator)
• Michael F. Cannon, Director of Health Policy Studies, Cato Institute
• Adam Gaffney, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Past-President, Physicians for a National Health Program
• Hayden Rooke-Ley, JD, Senior Fellow, Brown University School of Public Health
• Avik Roy, MD, Co-Founder and Chairman, Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity

In Washington, across the states, and in boardrooms, everyone’s got ideas for addressing the healthcare affordability crisis. The previous panel mapped out much of the ideological terrain. Now a group of experienced practitioners — a hospital CEO, a clinician, a former state health commissioner, and a journalist — tells us what happens when theory meets reality. What’s politically viable, operationally feasible, and capable of actually making a difference?

• Lily Cervantes, MD, Director of Immigrant Health and Professor of Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus; 2024 BLASR winner (Moderator)
• Fred Cerise, MD, President and Chief Executive Officer, Parkland Health
• Jeanne Lambrew, PhD, Director of Health Care Reform and Senior Fellow, The Century Foundation; Former Commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services
• Noam Levey, Senior Correspondent, KFF Health News

Study after study confirms that robust primary care is the foundation of an affordable health system. Yet American medicine has systematically left it undervalued and underfunded — leaving clinicians to burn out, opt out, or ask a harder question: what if working within the system is itself the problem? Direct Primary Care promises liberation from insurer bureaucracy, but can it scale? Does collective action through physician unionization offer a better path to clinician control of care? This session explores what it will actually take for primary care to become the backbone of a more affordable system.

• Reshma Ramachandran, MD, Assistant Professor, Yale; Co-director, Yale Collaboration for Regulatory Rigor, Integrity, and Transparency; 2025 BLASR winner (Moderator)
• Michael L. Barnett, MD, Professor of Health Services Policy & Practice, Brown University School of Public Health
• Zirui Song, MD, Associate Professor of Health Care Policy and Medicine, Harvard Medical School
• Kenneth Qiu, MD, Founder, EuDoc Direct Primary Care

Indiana and Massachusetts may not share much politically, but they share a lot when it comes to the fiscal challenges of healthcare. Gloria Sachdev spent years as an employer advocate demanding more from Indiana’s healthcare providers before stepping into state government; Kate Walsh ran one of the country’s premier safety-net hospitals before serving as Massachusetts’ top health official. With gridlock at the federal level, are states prepared to use their regulatory authority to advance reforms?

• Vikas Saini, MD, President, Lown Institute (Moderator)
• Gloria Sachdev, PharmD, Indiana Secretary of Health and Family Services; Former CEO of Employers Forum of Indiana
• Kate Walsh, Former Secretary of Health and Human Services, Massachusetts; Former CEO of Boston Medical Center

These four CEOs represent hospitals that received exceptional scores on the Lown Hospitals Index for Social Responsibility — meaning that despite enormous external pressures, they’ve found ways to deliver. But what does that actually look like from the inside, and how do you sustain it? This conversation explores the tensions involved with meeting the demands of clinical care, education, and research while maximizing social responsibility and affordability. What new business practices, technologies, and care delivery approaches show the most promise for lowering costs without compromising quality? And what qualities will the next generation of leaders need to carry this work forward?

• Donna Lynne, DrPH, CEO, Denver Health (Moderator)
• Jason Carter, MBA, President and Chief Operating Officer, Duke Regional Hospital
• Susan Ehrlich, MD, CEO, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center
• Brendan G. Carr, MD, CEO, Mount Sinai Health System

After a full day of debate and honest exchange, attendees will have the chance to work through what they’ve heard, at their tables. What threads connected for you? Where did the day’s conversations surprise? This interactive session will be led by some of the most compelling young voices in healthcare reform. Hear how they found traction in changing systems that don’t move easily, then bring your own perspective to bear as you work through what responsibility looks like for you.

• Lily Cervantes, MD, Director of Immigrant Health and Professor of Medicine, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus; 2024 BLASR winner (Moderator)
• Reshma Ramachandran, MD, Assistant Professor, Yale; Co-director, Yale Collaboration for Regulatory Rigor, Integrity, and Transparency; 2025 BLASR winner
• Apoorva Ram, MD, Content Director for Healthcare Structures, Policy, and Economics, University of Colorado School of Medicine

Genuine ideological diversity – This isn’t an echo chamber. You’ll engage with people who have different points of view but, like you, are ready to figure out where collaboration is possible anyway.

Solutions over performance – No panels designed for applause lines. No keynotes that avoid hard truths. Just honest exchange about what’s actually blocking progress and what might move us forward.

Action, not just analysis – You’ll leave with concrete next steps, new collaborators, and renewed clarity about where you can make the biggest impact.

Access to unlikely allies – Where else will you find young clinicians, hospital board members, business leaders, union organizers, and health policy researchers all working the same problem from different angles?

Bottom line: we need leaders like you – If you see yourself as a leader and want to shape the future rather than wait for it, this is your conference.

Boston is beautiful in the spring!

For more information about the LOWN26 Conference, BLASR Dinner, and/or sponsorship opportunities, reach out to Grant Sabean at lownaward@lowninstitute.org.

For press inquiries, contact Aaron Toleos at atoleos@lowninstitute.org.