The future of America’s health care system served as the topic during the 29th annual Rev. John J. Flanagan, S.J., Lecture. The lecture series is sponsored by the Saint Louis University School of Public Health. This year’s event took place on March 22 in the Scottish Rite Cathedral.
Former three-term Colorado Governor Richard Lamm provided the keynote address, entitled “Rebuilding the House of Health Care.” Currently, Lamm is a professor and the director of the Center for Public Policy & Contemporary Issues at the University of Denver.
“He is one of the new breed of policy analysts who argues that the challenge of the 21st century is to meet new public needs by reconceptualizing much of what government does and how it does it,” said Richard Kurz, dean of the School of Public Health. “Lamm maintains we cannot retire the baby boomers under our current systems, nor provide health care without rethinking the goals of medicine.”
Lamm’s speech presented his views on and solutions to the problems of America’s health care system. “I am absolutely fascinated. I am haunted by the question: `How do we retire the baby boomers?'” Lamm asked. Approximately six million baby boomers will enter the retirement system, he added.
The concept of age and growing older has completely changed, he added, noting that a “retiring society, an aging society” has three challenges: Health care, income security and long-term care. Three aspects that must be analyzed in health care include the doctor-patient relationship, health plans and communities, and health care from the state and national perspective.
Retirement systems in the past, Lamm noted, have been set at age levels that were thought of as unusually high expectancies. Nowadays, he said, it comes as no shock if a person lives past age 70.
“How do we give decent retirements with the demands that we have with an aging society?” Lamm asked, pointing out that the American health care system spends 50 percent more per person than any other country, but excludes 42 million people without health insurance. “How do we balance those questions of being fair to the elderly while being fair to the children?”
“I would argue that the United States denies more health care than any other nation,” Lamm said. “The biggest ethical issue in the U.S. health care system is the U.S. health care system.”
Lamm considered the issue from an economic standpoint, saying that in a world of fiscal scarcity, demands will continue to exceed resources, and the costs of health care must be considered. “When you’re spending other people’s money, it’s very easy to over consume,” he said.
