Congressman, officials weigh in on healthcare
Andrea Coan / Correspondent
Issue date: 4/22/08 Section: University
As a universal healthcare plan is a major issue of the upcoming presidential election, the School of Management and Labor Relations invited Congressman Rush Holt and University affiliates to discuss potential policies at a panel discussion Monday in the Janice H. Levin Building on Livingston campus.
"I predict we will have a major overhaul of healthcare in the federal government, probably not in the next two years but in the next half dozen years," Holt said.
Holt said he thinks fast change is possible, as businesses are finding benefits to providing better healthcare for their employees.
"Some of you have said that having a healthcare system that depends on where you work is a crazy system," he said. "Now the employers are saying that. Businesses have a bigger megaphone than the ordinary citizen."
Panelist David Mechanic, the director of the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, spoke about the politics behind the future of healthcare.
"We have to think about how to develop an agency within the federal structure with non-biased evaluations on effectiveness," Mechanic said.
He said healthcare-focused agencies in the past usually had problems progressing because they were not insulated from corporate pressures.
"The English have a model called NICE, National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence, that does evaluations and provides advice," Mechanic said.
Voicing her opposition to federal involvement, panelist Sara Horowitz, the executive director of the Freelancers' Union, spoke about the importance of non-governmental health assistance.
"We need to start thinking about the intermediary," Horowitz said.
Her union acts as a benefits network by providing health insurance for all of its 17,000 members as a safety net for persons without a specific employer, she said.
Horowitz said the union is interested in its membership rather than profits because the more clients the group has, the more political power it assumes.
"I predict we will have a major overhaul of healthcare in the federal government, probably not in the next two years but in the next half dozen years," Holt said.
Holt said he thinks fast change is possible, as businesses are finding benefits to providing better healthcare for their employees.
"Some of you have said that having a healthcare system that depends on where you work is a crazy system," he said. "Now the employers are saying that. Businesses have a bigger megaphone than the ordinary citizen."
Panelist David Mechanic, the director of the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, spoke about the politics behind the future of healthcare.
"We have to think about how to develop an agency within the federal structure with non-biased evaluations on effectiveness," Mechanic said.
He said healthcare-focused agencies in the past usually had problems progressing because they were not insulated from corporate pressures.
"The English have a model called NICE, National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence, that does evaluations and provides advice," Mechanic said.
Voicing her opposition to federal involvement, panelist Sara Horowitz, the executive director of the Freelancers' Union, spoke about the importance of non-governmental health assistance.
"We need to start thinking about the intermediary," Horowitz said.
Her union acts as a benefits network by providing health insurance for all of its 17,000 members as a safety net for persons without a specific employer, she said.
Horowitz said the union is interested in its membership rather than profits because the more clients the group has, the more political power it assumes.