Leading Health Care Organizations, Teaching Institutions, Professional Societies in Health and Labor Unions Join Forces To Renew Call for National Health Care Reform; “Rekindling Reform” Movement Kicks Off Campaign with Seminar and Lecture in NYC
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January 10, 2002, New York City:
Citing the complete failure to achieve a plan for a truly comprehensive and universal health care system in the United States, more than 30 health care organizations and professional societies in health, academic institutions and unions renewed the call for national health care reform at a kickoff seminar today in New York City.
The new movement, “Rekindling Reform,” hopes to examine how other countries successfully deliver quality health care and to ultimately deliver a comprehensive and workable alternative to the “hodge podge” approach to the health care system that’s currently failing in this country.
“The series will take a hard look at how the US and other countries, like France, Canada, Germany and the UK, have approached health care and see what’s worked and what hasn’t,” said Dr. Louis Levitt, Professor Emeritus, Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University. “We hope to get some new insights about how to make health care work better in the US, to understand the obstacles to achieving reform and eventually to propose workable policies that will lead to universal health care coverage. We hope that this will have an impact on the health care debate that’s sure to arise during the 2002 congressional elections and the Presidential elections beyond that,” concluded Dr. Levitt.
At today’s seminar, Dr. Bruce Vladeck, Senior Vice President, Policy, Mount Sinai NYU Health, discussed the state of health care in the United States. Dr. Vladeck is a nationally recognized expert in US health care practices who had formerly headed the federal Health Care Financing Administration. Dr. Vladeck analyzed the obstacles to major reform in the US, but also characterized the developing factors that are making the current system untenable. "For both moral and political reasons, it's especially important that health care providers take the lead in advocating for and shaping reform,” commented Dr. Vladeck.
“With tens of millions still under-insured or uninsured in this country, incremental reforms, as important as they have been, have simply fallen far short in repairing the gaps in health care coverage. Medicare beneficiaries are being dropped, health plans are raising premiums, and many health plans are not meeting the cost of promised prescription drug benefits,” said Dr. Oliver Fein, Associate Dean, Professor of Clinical Medicine and Public Health, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, who also briefly addressed today’s audience. “There’s growing agreement in all sectors, including among doctors themselves, that the only way we’ll get universal health care in the US is to work out a global, comprehensive approach, and the ‘Rekindling Reform’ movement aims to jump start that process,” added Dr. Fein.
Today’s seminar was the first in a monthly series that will examine different countries’ approaches to health care, most notably France, the UK, Germany and Canada. Every seminar is structured with the guidance and participation of consultants who are recognized experts in the political history of the US health reform efforts and/or the international comparative study of health systems. Each one of the seminars will be followed, the next day, by a “working session,” where Rekindling Reform members can explore the reform strategy further.
The Rekindling Reform movement, although new, continues to expand its ranks rapidly, and many notable leaders in the health care and other fields have already signed on. Arthur L. Caplan, Director of the Center for Bioethics and Chair of the Department of Bioethics at University of Pennsylvania is one of the latest endorsers and has this to say about the movement’s goals:
“The attainment of universal access to adequate health care is the overriding moral priority facing the President and Congress during the coming year. At a time when every American must rely on the health care system, not only in the battle against disease but also as a crucial line of defense in the war on terror, it is simply unacceptable to permit any American to go without health care. Universal access also makes good financial sense. Universal coverage will increase health promotion, diminish the need for costly emergency care, lower the cost of chronic illnesses and reduce the huge costs associated with malpractice and duplicative bureaucracy in the current health care system. Universal health care is both the right thing to do and the prudent policy to follow. Until and unless universal health care is achieved the United States cannot make any credible claim to fulfilling its obligation to its citizens, young and old, rich and poor, rural and urban.”
“We can’t afford to tinker around the edges of the health care system any longer,” said Dr. Allen Rosenfield, Dean of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. "All we’re doing is putting band aids on a system that’s simply not working. It’s not working for health care providers, it’s not working for businesses, and it’s certainly not working for patients. It is a national embarrassment that there are some 40 million uninsured people in one of the wealthiest nations in the world and most of these people are low income workers,” continued Dr. Rosenfield.
Rekindling Reform hopes to make all lectures and papers available in print and on a website, currently under construction.
The next lecture will take place on Thursday, February 21, 2001 at 5 pm at the Hunter College School of Social Work in the auditorium. The focus will be on the United Kingdom, and the keynote speaker will be Dr. Donald Light of Princeton University. That lecture will be open to the public.
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Sponsors (list in formation): AARP; Adelphi University -- School of Social Work; American Medical Student Association (Region IX); Brooklyn College -- Department of Health and Nutrition Sciences; Columbia University -- Graduate School of Social Work, School of Nursing, Mailman School of Public Health; Committee of Interns and Residents; Fordham University -- Graduate School of Social Service; Hunter College -- School of Social Work; International Longevity Center USA; Long Island Coalition for a National Health Care Plan; Manhattan Central Medical Society; Metro New York Health Care for All; National Association of Social Workers, New York City Chapter; New School University -- Robert J. Milano School of Management and Urban Policy; New York Academy of Family Physicians; New York Academy of Medicine; New York Citizens Committee on Health Care Decisions; New York Council of Churches; New York State Association of Deans of Social Work Schools; New York State Nurses Association; New York University -- School of Social Work, Wagner School of Public Service; New York University Medical School -- Center for Global Health; Norc Supportive Services Center; Nurse Practitioners of New York; Physicians for a National Health Program, New York Chapter; Public Health Association of New York City; Student National Medical Association (Region II); SUNY College at Old Westbury -- Health and Society Program; SUNY Stony Brook -- School of Social Welfare; Queens College -- Urban Studies Department; Yeshiva University -- Wurzweiler School of Social Work
This article courtesy of http://www.mhefoundation.org.
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