Alan Sager
Profiles

Alan P. Sager, PhD

Professor, Health Law, Policy & Management - Boston University School of Public Health

(617) 358-2964
asager@bu.edu
Talbot - 344
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Biography

Alan Sager specialized in health in graduate school because it looked like the easiest sector in which to win affordable equity for all Americans since so much money was already spent on medical care. (Not easy-just easier than anything else.) His main interests are health reform--combining universal coverage with cost control, and improving both finance and delivery; preserving needed physician, hospital, and long-term care services; boosting the supply of primary care; and winning affordable prescription drug prices while incentivizing innovative pharmaceutical research.  He has studied causes and effects of urban hospital closings, finding a strong and persistent link between race of the people living near a hospital and the probability of closing. Hospital efficiency doesn't predicts survival. Alan designed a "time banking" method of mobilizing voluntary help for people with disabilities. By creating a market for good deeds, it allows volunteers to help others when convenient. Time would be banked.  Former volunteers who themselves needed help could trade their banked time for help from a new volunteer. Alan holds a B.A. in economics from Brandeis and a Ph.D. in city and regional planning (specializing in health care) from MIT.

Alan Sager is writing a book titled The Easiest: Affordable High-quality Health Care Is the Easiest Problem to Fix in the United States. Available at no charge, it is being posted chapter-by-chapter on https://www.healthreformprogram.info

Education

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, PhD Field of Study: Urban Studies
  • University of Miami, MEd Field of Study: Education
  • Brandeis University, BA Field of Study: Economics

Websites

Classes Taught

  • SPHPH845
  • SPHPM735
  • SPHPM834
  • SPHPM931

Publications

  • Published on 8/28/2025

    Alan Sager. Chapter 6. What Needs to Be Done--and Not Done pp. 504-515. 2025.

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  • Published on 8/28/2025

    Alan Sager. Chapter 5. Government Failure Is the Other Source of Anarchy pp. 411-503. 2025.

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  • Published on 6/1/2025

    Alan Sager. Chapter 3. What's the Evidence that We Spend Enough? pp. 233-356. 2025.

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  • Published on 6/1/2025

    Alan Sager. The Easiest: Affordable Health Care for All Is the Easiest Problem to Solve in the U.S. Not Easy - Just Easier than Any of the Others - chapter 2 . 2025; 174-232.

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  • Published on 4/26/2025

    Alan Sager. The Easiest - Chapter 1 - How the United States Won Affordable Health Care for All - A Letter from 2035. 2025.

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  • Published on 4/26/2025

    Alan Sager. The Easiest: Affordable High-quality Health Care for All Is the Easiest Problem to Fix in the United States. 2025; i - xxv.

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  • Published on 5/2/2023

    Vasudevan A, Bailey HM, Sager A, Kazis LE. Impact of the Early COVID-19 Pandemic on Burn Care: A Multi-National Study. J Burn Care Res. 2023 May 02; 44(3):580-589. PMID: 35661890.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 1/31/2023

    Marc A. Rodwin and Alan Sager. The No Surprises Act: A Conservative Band-Aid to Protect Business as Usual. International Journal of Social Determinants of Health and Health Services. 2023; 53(1):63-68.

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  • Published on 7/1/2022

    Kazis LE, Sager A, Bailey HM, Vasudevan A, Garrity B, Tompkins RG. Physical Rehabilitation and Mental Health Care After Burn Injury: A Multinational Study. J Burn Care Res. 2022 Jul 01; 43(4):868-879. PMID: 34788851.

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  • Published on 5/17/2022

    Kazis LE, Sager A, Bailey HM, Vasudevan A, Garrity B, Tompkins RG. Erratum to: Physical Rehabilitation and Mental Health Care After Burn Injury: A Multinational Study. J Burn Care Res. 2022 May 17; 43(3):758. PMID: 35032165.

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