LU Hosts Summit on Health Care with Dr. Stuart Rosenberg

In 2008 the United States had a total of 300.5 million people, of which 15 percent were not insured. That equates to roughly 45,075,000 people who weren't covered by health insurance. Dr. Stuart Rosenberg, president and CEO of Harvard Medical Faculty Physicians (HMFP) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, said, "We spend more than any other country in the world and we're the only developed nation that has people that don't have full coverage."

On Thursday, Feb. 18, Longwood University held a summit on health care reform. The summit started out with a PowerPoint by Dr. Rosenberg that was meant to lay out the facts of healthcare for those that attended the summit. Following this PowerPoint was a panel discussion that consisted of four participants: Rosenberg, Congressman Tom Perriello, Dr. Joe Montoya and Dr. Gwen Eddleman.

The first question asked during the forum was: From your perspective what is the current state of healthcare?

It all went back to Rosenberg's equation that value equals quality of goods or services over cost, meaning that value of healthcare is directly related to the cost and how it affects the quality of goods. The basic idea is you get what you paid for, only that isn't the case in the U.S. People pay more and more in health insurance but get less bang for their buck.

In 2007 the total health expenditure per capita, public and private for the United States was 7,290. The next lowest total health care expenditure was 3,895 the per capita spent by Canada in 2007 (OECD Health Data 1009). The United States spent a whole 3,395 more on health care in one year than any other country and there are still a lot of people that are not fully covered by their health insurance.

Perriello made a good point when he said, "we are now in a position where staying on one insurance policy for a long period of time doesn't exist." From a the viewpoint of a health insurance agent he said, "But when I think you're probably going to go through six jobs in the next 15 years, my goal is to make sure you find out you're sick when you're on someone else's insurance."

Perriello was making the point that people don't stay on the same insurance like they did when our grandparents were growing up. It use to be that people stayed on the same insurance for 40-50 years. Now, insurance companies don't want to pay for people who are sick, they would rather pass the bill off on another company and keep the problem subdued until the patient gets on someone else's insurance.

The second question asked during the forum was: if you had the chance to talk to a political middle class American hard hit by the current economic situation what would you say to them regarding healthcare?

Montoya discussed how "the more information you have the more you have a voice." He also talked about how most people are either not informed or they have bad information regarding healthcare.

The answers provided for the second question focused on how people aren't being educated about health care like they should be. The main problem is that people are not informed and they are not aware of their options within the healthcare community. Also how there needs to be more attempts at reaching out to the community to inform people about their options.

Finally the last question asked during the forum was: what are some pilot success stories you've witnessed?

All the participants had a different answer, Montoya talked about the new nursing program here at Longwood, Eddleman commented on success stories right here in Farmville.

Parriello discussed how he'd like to see a set standard of care and zero liability if that standard is met. The basic idea being said was every doctor would have a baseline for what tests and procedures needed to be followed for every patient, and if that baseline standard had been met then the doctors are not liable.

Dr. Rosenberg discussed as one of his points "transparency with regard to quality of care and the price that you pay and the availability of care."

Between the four panelists it was agreed that money and clarity are the big problems. There's no set price of procedures from insurance agency to insurance agency. The policies made available to the public from healthcare insurance companies are very unclear and the policies need to be made clear in a way that patients can understand what they are paying for and get the quality they want.

Senior Emily Ludeman had to agree with the panel members. "In general terms, I'd say clarity and political gridlock are the big," she said. She feels that "So much of the news regarding healthcare is only about the stalemate between Republicans and Democrats. The actual necessity of reform has taken a backseat to bi partisan politics."

Melody Eaton, the associate professor and department chair of nursing, who was also part of the planning for the health care summit said, "We felt that it is a topic that impacts all of us. We really wanted to engage students, faculty and the greater community in the exploration of the "state of health care" in this country, what problems exist, and discuss possible solutions.