IOP Panel on Global Health Calls for More Funding

Improving health in developing countries\s requires increased funding, a group of panelists told a standing-room only crowd in the ARCO Forum last night.

University President Lawrence H. Summers, who served as the moderator for the event entitled “Healthier or Wealthier: Which Comes First in the New Global Era?,” set the tone by saying that “global health is as morally and practically pressing as any other question facing mankind.”

The panelists first debated how current levels of foreign aid could be used more effectively to combat world epidemics like malaria and AIDS.

Stone Professor of International Trade Jeffrey D. Sachs ’76 elicited applause from the audience for his suggestion to simply increase foreign aid—rather than debate the best ways to use the current levels of funding.

“Countries are trapped in this cycle of disease and impoverishment,” he said. “Twenty-five thousand are dying a day. A few bucks from each of us could help. I’m all for throwing money at problems.”

Sachs—who is well-known for working with rock group U2’s lead singer Bono to reduce the debt faced by developing nations—said he is a part of a group that is planning a possible million-person march led by Bono on the Mall in Washington to advocate aid for developing countries.

Sachs also noted that retiring Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) recently promised to focus on the issue of global AIDS during his last year in the Senate after hearing Bono speak on the topic.

“It’s not a liberal or conservative issue” Sachs said. “If people understand the issue, they will embrace it.”

Panelist Roberta Baskin, senior producer of ABC’s “20/20,” said the media plays an essential role in bringing world health issues to the forefront of public discussion.

“The media can change public opinion if it shines a bright light on an issue,” she said.

After an hour of panelist discussion, Summers opened the floor to audience questions.

A student from the Harvard School of Public Health received applause when he asked whether it is realistic to expect the U.S. government to provide foreign health aid when it does not provide health care to one third of its own population.

Sachs said Americans currently spend $1.4 trillion a year on their health care—but said the U.S. government only spent $50 million during the 1990s on AIDS in Africa.

“What’s with the United States that we’re doing one third of what European countries do,” Sachs said. “We’ve gotten incredibly lazy on this.”

Gabe Koragian, a student at the Kennedy School of Government (KSG), asked the panel why diseases with inexpensive cures persist in developing countries.

Koragian said the malaria he contracted as a child was easily cured in one week with a two dollar treatment.

He said the panel should have expanded its focus to more easily treatable diseases.

The final audience question asked Summers his opinion on how best to deal with the issue of health professionals leaving developing areas for better pay in industrial countries.

“The only way to address these instances is to create an environment where capital wants to remain,” Summers said.

Audience member Jenny Schuetz, a KSG doctoral student, said she agreed with the panelists but found the panel somewhat one-sided, as all the panelists advocated increasing funding for international health care.

“I would like to hear the opinion of those who are wary of the inefficiencies of foreign aid,” she said.