Health of the Nation — Coverage for All Americans
Charles D. Baker, Arthur Caplan, Ph.D., Karen Davis, Ph.D., Susan Dentzer, Arnold M. Epstein, M.D., Bill Frist, M.D., Robert S. Galvin, M.D., Ruben J. King-Shaw, Jr., Thomas H. Lee, M.D., Jonathan B. Oberlander, Ph.D., Sara Rosenbaum, J.D., Steven A. Schroeder, M.D., and Reed V. Tuckson, M.D., moderated by Arthur R. Miller, J.D.
The New England Journal of Medicine
August 21, 2008
Shattuck Lecture
Sara Rosenbaum: [Access to care is] the most basic ethical issue of all. But it is a national decision on our part. It’s not the federal decision; it’s not the state decision; it is a national social decision. And we’ve been very bad about this.
Steven Schroeder: I think that a country should be judged by how it treats its less fortunate. In that respect, I’m ashamed of our country.
Jonathan Oberlander: If there’s one lesson that we’ve learned about health reform in the last few decades, [it’s that] being right doesn’t count for very much. We can come up with lots of stories to evoke moral outrage. And it’s not just about the uninsured. There are many Americans with insurance who have inadequate protection and who file for bankruptcy every year because they’re underinsured. But if we’re going to fight this battle for health reform on moral grounds, we’re going to lose.
Jonathan Oberlander: The price tag for universal coverage really is not that much. If you talk about adding the uninsured to the existing system, you’re talking about roughly $100 billion a year. We already spend over $2 trillion, so it’s a mark-up but not much. When we cut taxes in 2001 and 2003, we found the money to do that. When we passed the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit in 2003, we found the money to do that. When we went to war in Iraq, we found the money to do that. So this is a question of priorities. And the uninsured are not a political priority.
http://www.nejm.org/perspective/health%2Dof%2Dthe%2Dnation%2Dvideo/
It would be worth your time to either watch the video or read the transcript of this very unusual Shattuck Lecture. For one hour Arthur Miller prods this panel on a discussion of important challenges to the American health care system. Comments are invited at the link above.
You likely will be disappointed, but that is precisely why you should at least skim over the transcript. It is disconcerting to see how ineffective a select panel of noted experts can be in framing the problems, much less in approaching any real solutions. Some exceptions are represented by the individuals quoted above.
We can do it – easily. But will we? If the ethics won’t drive us, what will?
(Hint: money. Establishing a value-based single payer system that takes care of everyone would cost less than passively accepting a continuing intolerable increase in health care costs in a system that leaves so many out. We need to target those who pay the bills.)
