Dr. Alan Balch of the Patient Advocate Foundation Calls for Policy Innovation Rooted in Social Equity at SCHD25

“Healthcare is both an economic and lifestyle right essential to achieving wellbeing and happiness.” – Dr. Alan Balch

At the 2025 Summit on Cancer Health Disparities (SCHD25) in Seattle, Dr. Alan Balch, CEO of the Patient Advocate Foundation, took center stage in the highly anticipated closing debate: Crisis in Care – Can the U.S. Find a Sustainable Model for Affordable Healthcare? Drawing on decades of experience in health economics and patient advocacy, Dr. Balch emphasized the urgent need to integrate social and policy innovation into cancer care reform.

Rethinking the U.S. Healthcare Identity

“Our fundamental challenge is that we have refused to choose a guiding principle for healthcare distribution,” Dr. Balch said. “We demand free markets yet insist on government regulation; we want breakthrough innovation but also price controls. Economically, these are incompatible goals. You must prioritize one framework while borrowing selectively from the other.”

Rather than arguing for a specific ideological model, Dr. Balch focused on designing systems that intentionally safeguard the most vulnerable. “However, we structure care, we must deliberately address the access gap, because without intervention, both markets and bureaucracies will overlook the sickest and poorest among us”.

Beyond the Single-Payer Debate

Dr. Balch challenged assumptions about single-payer systems being a cure-all: “A single-payer insurance system alone is not enough. Just paying for Medicare through a single-payer model will not close affordability gaps or meaningfully reduce health disparities. What we need is a more comprehensive approach, one that wraps a single-payer system with robust social welfare and public assistance programs”.

Social Innovation as a Healthcare Imperative

Throughout the debate, Dr. Balch stressed that innovation must extend beyond medicine to include the social determinants of health. “We place too much emphasis on innovation as purely technological or medical, when in fact there is an entire realm of social innovation that is just as vital,” he explained. “Using community health workers and patient navigation to address social needs within care models is a powerful form of innovation that can reach the most vulnerable and lower overall costs”.

Dr. Balch emphasizing critical points regarding social innovation in healthcare

Making Healthcare Personal

On the need for patient-centered reform, Dr. Balch observed, “You cannot engineer a system for just one person, but you also cannot design one for 350 million. We need to be brave enough to think in subtypes or segments... Rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, we can identify patient archetypes, not just based on genetics, but also on social vulnerabilities, caregiver gaps, and other consistent factors”.

Protecting Patients Before They Fall Through the Cracks

Dr. Balch was particularly passionate about preventing financial toxicity. He highlighted a growing issue in cancer care: patients who begin treatment with sufficient means but become overwhelmed by cumulative costs. “We also need to screen for financial distress. It is easy to identify patients in poverty at the start; it is much harder to spot those who will struggle six months into care,” he said. “Tools like the HOUSES Index can help identify patients likely to face affordability challenges early, allowing us to connect them with navigators, community health workers, and social support”.

The Path Forward

Ultimately, Dr. Balch called for greater public participation in driving change: “At the end of the day, the real power lies in the hands of voters”.

As SCHD25 wrapped up, Dr. Balch left attendees with a powerful takeaway: building a sustainable, affordable, and equitable healthcare system requires not just better drugs or smarter policies, but a cultural shift toward shared responsibility, patient-centered design, and systemic compassion.

Learn with Us and Drive Meaningful Impact

As a leader in global oncology, Binaytara organizes SCHD annually to address critical issues in cancer health disparities. All our CME conferences are multidisciplinary and are designed for physicians, advanced practice providers, pharmacists, nurses, and other healthcare professionals committed to advancing cancer care. We strongly believe that targeted CME and cross-institutional collaboration are essential to expanding the reach and impact of novel cancer treatments. Learn more about upcoming regional and national hematology/oncology conferences and initiatives at the Binaytara Education Academy.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by Dr. Balch are his own and do not necessarily represent the official position of The Patient Advocate Foundation. Some statements reflect his professional experience and clinical perspective.