Forums to examine possible solutions to health care cost crisis
By Matt Pacenza
Times Union, Albany, New York
Monday, March 6, 2006
ALBANY — The bill gets bigger every day. By 2015, one out of every five dollars spent in America will pay for health care — $4 trillion, according to a recent study.
There has to be a better system than the current U.S. hodgepodge of private and public insurance, which is unnecessarily costly yet also leaves millions with inadequate care, according to a diverse group of activists and business people that has come together in recent years to seek an alternative.
Four forums to debate transforming the health care system will be held over the coming month at WAMC’s Linda Norris Auditorium at 318 Central Ave. The lunchtime symposiums, open to the public, won’t just bring together those who back universal health care.
“People are participating from different points of view,” said Dr. Paul Sorum, chairman of the Capital District chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program and event organizer. “We expect a lot of interesting and passionate exchanges between them and members of the audience.”
The first session — from noon to 2 p.m. on Tuesday — includes Dr. Oliver Fein, a Cornell medical school dean who backs universal health care, Dr. Jeremy Lazarus from the American Medical Association, which supports free-market approaches, and the chief of the Capital District Physicians Health Plan, Dr. William Cromie. Rounding out the panel — called “What is wrong with the current system? Would ‘Medicare for All’ remedy these deficiencies?’ ” — is Albany Med’s well-known bioethicist, Glen McGee.
Each forum will be moderated by WAMC President Alan Chartock and edited for broadcast.
The time is ripe for an in-depth debate on health care, said Sorum, who is also a professor of internal medicine and pediatrics at Albany Medical College. He listed the issues grabbing headlines across the country: “The rising cost; the number of people who don’t have health insurance; the screams of business people who can’t afford to provide insurance, even if they would like to; the rising cost of Medicaid, and its burden on county taxpayers.”
Anyone interested in attending the forums is asked to pre-register by e-mailing pnhpalbany@verizon.net or by calling (518) 391-2508. The other three panels will be held on:
March 27, 1 to 3 p.m. “What lessons can we learn from other countries?”
April 10, noon to 2 p.m. “What would an expanded Medicare for all look like?”
April 24, noon to 2 p.m. “Can we institute Medicare for all in a single state, namely New York?”