By Nathaniel Luce
Publication: BUSINESSWEEK
Health care is one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dismal job picture for b-school grads, and reform, if it happens, has the potential to make it brighter still.
Part of the reason health care attracts MBAs is that it’s such a mess. The impetus for health-care reform in the first place was high cost, ineffective treatments, and millions of uninsured Americans—problems that will require solutions whether reform passes or not. Jeff Freude, a second-year student in the Healthcare MBA program at Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management (Owen Full-Time MBA Profile) believes an aging population requiring more care, a financially challenged Medicare system, and ever-rising costs make health care one of the greatest challenges facing the American people. “We must bring consumption and cost to a sustainable level,” he says. “Health care accounts for 20% of the economy, which is a lot. It’s a real challenge and opportunity for MBAs.”
