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Alumni Day 2009 Addresses Healthcare Reform, Honors Graduates
Nearly 100 distinguished graduates of the Yale School of Public Health enjoyed a reunion at the New Haven Lawn Club on June 5 during the School’s annual Alumni Day, focused this year on the pressing business of health care reform in the United States. Public health experts drawn from YSPH alumni and faculty engaged in vigorous discussion before sitting down to an awards luncheon to recognize their classmates’ contributions to public health. David Himmelstein, M.D., associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and chief of the division of Social and Community Medicine at Cambridge Hospital, delivered the keynote address on “Healthcare Reform: A Medical Emergency.” “Our health–care system is very deeply troubled,” said Himmelstein, noting a sharp rise in the ranks of the uninsured—with one–third of Americans inadequately covered—that results in over 18,000 deaths each year. “This is a middle–class problem of mainstream Americans fallen on hard times.”
Himmelstein, co–founder of the Physicians for a National Health Program, attacked managed–care HMOs for maximizing their profits at the expense of efficient health–care delivery, and for racking up high administrative costs that place a strain on funding. “We need to change the incentives in our system,” he said. Himmelstein pointed to Canada as a useful model, citing their system’s portability of benefits, not–for–profit status and universal coverage for all medically necessary procedures. Even Canadians who are poor, he said, fare better than the average U.S. citizen by indexes such as infant mortality rates. “The little bit of pressure we’ve applied has created a little bit of movement,” said Himmelstein, who has testified before Congress to advocate for a single–payer system. Following the keynote, a alumni—faculty panel on “Healthcare Reform: A Public Health Opportunity,” moderated by Michael H. Owens, M.D. ’78, M.P.H. ’78 , regional medical director of the Molina Health Care in San Diego, included: Bradford A. Buxton, M.P.H. ’78, president of BTB Associates and principal of HES Advisors in Northfield, Ill.; Mark W. Legnini, Dr.P.H. ’88, research director of the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.; Robert V. Levine, M.P.H. ’80, president and Chief Executive Officer of Peninsula Hospital Center in Far Rockaway, N.Y.; and Mark J. Schlesinger, professor in the division of Health Policy and Administration at YSPH. “No matter what we do, we are epidemiologists at heart and we need to get to the core of the problem,” said Buxton, seeking common ground in the panel’s divergent prescriptions for repairing our health–care system. Levine pointed out that health–care would not only reduce the numbers of uninsured; it would increase funding for hospitals treating Medicare and Medicaid patients. “I believe all the uninsured should get a Medicare or Medicaid card,” he said. “It would make my life easier, too.” Legnini expressed confidence that the prospect of reform at a federal level, whether sweeping or incremental, will improve health care. “I am sanguine about the Obama administration’s ability to provide coverage for the uninsured,” he said, adding that the key question at the Brookings Institution is: “How do we pay in a way that ‘incentivizes’ doctors and hospitals?” Schlesinger stressed his conviction that mandates must extend beyond creating a single–payer system. “Insurance reform alone is not sufficient to make our health–care system work well, in terms of timely access to quality care at reasonable rates,” he said. “Policy makers in the Beltway have lost sight of other problems” – in particular the pervasive, systemic issue of patients’ disconnection from the health–care system. “Even within the insured population, tens of thousands do not fully access their health–care,” he said, describing them as uncertain of recourses and fearful of catastrophic expenses. As a remedy, Schlesinger proposes an infrastructure of health–care connectedness – sometimes called a medical ombudsman system – that would include a telephone hotline, an advocacy network for those with chronic health issues and a program of patient support. “The right to health care needs to be complemented by the right for patients to understand the health–care system,” he concluded. At the alumni luncheon, James Jekel M.D. M.P.H. ’65, professor emeritus at YSPH, presented the Distinguished Service Award to David L. Katz, M.D. ’93, M.P.H. ’93, associate professor adjunct in Public Health Practice. In his remarks, Katz reminded his colleagues that “no man is an island.” “The public health crises we confront – their dangers and opportunities – loom vastly larger than any individual,” said Katz, highlighting the obesity epidemic and the threat it poses to cardiovascular health for increasingly younger patient populations. “The challenge before us is to change our trajectory before angiogram takes its place alongside acne as an adolescent rite–of–passage,” he said. “Every policy, program and practice is a sandbag in the levy – corrective actions to turn the tide.” To stimulate interest in public health, he insisted, practitioners “must part the veil of statistical anonymity,” revealing the faces of people afflicted with illness. “It is human interest stories that evoke our passion,” he said. “When we speak of ‘public health,’ the public is us.” Melinda Pettigrew, Ph.D. ’99, an associate professor in the division of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases at YSPH, received this year’s Eric W. Mood New Professionals Award. “Sitting in faculty meetings with the same professors I studied under is a very strange feeling,” quipped Pettigrew, who joined the faculty in 2002. Public Service Honor Roll inductees are Evangeline Franklin M.D. ’82, M.P.H. ’82; Vandine Or, M.D. ’96, M.P.H. ’96; Romericus Stewart, M.P.H. ’97; and Peter Orris, M.P.H. ’70. “David Himmelstein’s analysis of health care must be listened to not only today, at Yale, but in our national policy debate,” said Orris, medical officer at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, who had traveled to New Haven from Chicago. Alumni day concluded with a champagne and dessert reception, where alumni toasted each other’s achievements and caught up on each other’s lives. “Today was a great intellectual challenge—very stimulating,” said Marie Roberto, Dr.P.H. ’89. “Getting back into the spirit of Yale is always re–energizing for me.” To view events from Alumni Day, please view one of the following events: Please note you must have Real Player installed on your computer to view these videos. |
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