Health Care Hero
Anna Jacobs (BSBA’17) wants the power to heal
Flying, lightning speed, super strength: none of these was the superpower Anna Jacobs dreamed of as a child. “I thought the coolest superpower was being able to heal people,” she says. Today, Jacobs (BSBA’17) is a pre-med student studying business administration and biomedical engineering. Her goal is to get an MD/MBA, so she can serve patients, help reform the US health care system, and perhaps open her own hospital.
“We spend a lot of money [on health care in the United States], but we don’t get the results,” says Jacobs. The nation shells out more public dollars for health care than most high-income peers—and has higher rates of obesity, chronic conditions, and infant mortality. Jacobs wants to address that gap by advocating for more patient access to primary care with a focus on preventive, holistic medicine, such as diet and exercise regimens. “Insurance companies will pay for you to get drugs or treatment, but they don’t want to put a lot of money into primary care,” she says. “But studies have shown primary care saves you a lot of money in the long run because you’re preventing issues from happening.”
Choosing health care as a career has meant turning down a job offer from a New York City–based venture capital firm where Jacobs interned in summer 2014. But working as a part-time EMT in Boston has convinced her she’s on the right track.
Jacobs acknowledges that her ultimate goal of health care reform poses big bureaucratic challenges, but she’s determined to overcome them. Even if it means opening her own facility. “I know other people are definitely trying [to fix the system], and if it can’t be done at a hospital right now, then you’ve just gotta start your own.”
