Maggie Mahar

Maggie Mahar is a renowned financial journalist, author, and expert on the topic of health care reform. She is best known for her book, Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much, which was shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award and named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 2009.

Mahar was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania where she majored in international relations and wrote her honors thesis on the medical system in the Soviet Union. After college, she moved to New York City and started a career in publishing and communications.



Mahar’s interest in health-care economics didn’t manifest until 2003 when she began researching and writing about the high cost of medical care for Harper’s Magazine. The article, published in October 2003, marked the beginning of her journey that would eventually produce Money-Driven Medicine.

Money-Driven Medicine examines the role of money and greed in elevating health-care costs beyond what the public is willing or able to pay. Maurice H. Vorhees, a reviewer for the Wall Street Journal stated that “Mahar takes readers on a tour de force of the U.S. health system and systematically demonstrates how physicians, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and insurers, as distinct players in the system, have an incentive to maximize their income.”

Since publishing Money-Driven Medicine, Mahar has written several other books on health-care reform including: Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business, and What You Can Do About It; Health Beat: The Remarkable Proven Plan for Living to 100; and The Harvest of the Dream: Wealth & Abundance in the 21st Century. Through her books, Mahar has given voice to the under-served and under-insured of America.

In addition to writing books, Mahar has written articles and scholarly works for a variety of publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, and Harvard Business Review. She also contributes monthly columns to the financial section of The Huffington Post.

In her most recently published work, The Business of Health Care: Understanding How Medical Care Is Provided, Financed and Experienced, Mahar provides a comprehensive overview of how the health-care system works and how it affects individuals in the U.S. She argues that American health-care reform must begin with an understanding of how the system works and the current state of the market before positive changes can take place.

In addition to her writing, Mahar has become a noted speaker and advisor on health-care reform. She currently serves on the boards of the Campaign for Better Care and the International Society for Incremental Health Care Reform. She is also a senior advisor for a number of non-profit organizations including the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and the Prescription Project.

Mahar’s work has made her one of the most highly respected commentators on health-care reform in the U.S. She is an advocate of taking real action to lower the cost of medical care while improving the quality of health care. Her books, scholarly articles and thoughtful columns provide valuable insight into how the health-care system can be optimized for the benefit of everyone.