Health Secretary Criticizes Health Care

“The health care system is fundamentally broken,” Health and Human Services Secretary Mike O. Leavitt told a packed John F. Kennedy Forum last night as he advocated for far-reaching reforms of the American health care system.

In his talk, “Every American Insured,” Leavitt called the current system overly complicated and inefficient, and spoke in favor of a complete overhaul, identifying transparency, simplification, and an emphasis on prevention as prerequisites.

“Look at health care as preventing an illness instead of treating. Change what goes on inside of us. We’ve got to exercise more, eat better,” he said, adding that preventive care could reduce the prevalence of conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

Leavitt said he supported using a competitive market to ensure efficiency in addition to standardizing medical procedure prices to allow consumers to shop around.

In particular, he stressed the need to digitize medical records and to standardize pricing systems so that they can be compared before treatment.

He compared the current system to the early development of railroads, when competing companies used different gauge tracks that were incompatible.

His other suggestions included removing the tax break given to those who buy insurance through their employer.

Mohib Ali, a midcareer student at the Kennedy School of Government, said he was compelled by Leavitt’s emphasis on the role of the individual in relation to the health care industry.

“Health care is a very complex issue, and everyone needs to take charge of it,” he said.

Leavitt also spoke in opposition to the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which was authorized yesterday by the House of Representatives. The program provides medical coverage to children in low income families. The bill is likely to garner significant support in the Senate, but President George W. Bush has promised to veto it.

Leavitt called the extension an overstepping of the government’s role in providing health care.

He said he supported the current administration’s “Every American Insured” program, which seeks to ensure that the government provides insurance for the elderly and disabled, leaving the rest to the private sector.