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Top Senate Aides Debate Health Care Reform

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The New School

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Can Electronic Medical Records Reduce Health Care Costs?

03 min 11 sec

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A panel of Senate advisors discuss how health care reform passed by Congress would ideally incorporate a new standardized system of keeping electronic medical records, both lowering costs and improving patient care. New School President Bob Kerrey moderates.
Is Healthcare Coverage a Human Right?

02 min 31 sec

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Senate staffers Kate Leone and Russ Sullivan affirm that the goal of health care reform is to make sure it is affordable and accessible to all. Debate about how to achieve that goal has included the possibility of making basic health coverage mandatory.
The Budget Morass Surrounding Health Care Reform

04 min 44 sec

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A panel of Senate advisors and New School President Bob Kerrey debate how much the proposed health care reform bill is projected to cost American taxpayers over time.
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45 min 14 sec

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There are 2 comments on this program

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Previous FORAtv comments:

susanorypowers

Posted: 09.24.09, 01:58 PM

When Farrah Fawcett sought medical attention at one hospital, a member of the hospital staff leaked the info to the tabloids. If this can happen to a celebrity, what are the safeguards for everybody else? In my community, most everybody can find out bank balances by asking around. Confidentially may receive official lip service, but the reality is quite different. I certainly don't want my medical records for all to view at the local hospital. I see the advantages from the perspective of medical efficiency, but how can access be controlled and what little privacy left to us be preserved?

phiscal

Posted: 09.08.09, 10:23 AM

As this panel illustrates so nicely, Washington's fundamental problem is that it has little cost-cutting credibility. A far more salable reform is to cut health care costs first - in half - then "show taxpayers the money", then propose how it wants to spread those savings around. Obviously, they'd rather spend the money first, then wish-upon-a-star for the savings. Further, expanding entitlements at this time cannot be competent management by any stretch of the imagination, given that government has committed each family to pay nearly $1,000,000 in unfunded public obligations already - between "debt owed to the public", unfunded government employee retirement benefits, and the senior subsidies of Social Security and Medicare. Adding yet another financially exorbitant "human right" only gives the train of US public finances more momentum before it derails.