HEALTH-CARE REFORM - PROSPECTS AND PROGRESS

No longer can the health care community and the politicians work separately as they usually did until just a generation ago. Now, with or without the frustrations involved, both groups need one another and must work together to fulfill their common goal of caring for people. The U.S. economy can no longer sustain the immense and mounting costs of health care: the system must change drastically before the end of the century or there will be revolution or a collapse of the system. For the first time, there is a strong constituency calling for health care reform. The politicians and the health care community must stop ignoring that constituency and instead work together on a health care bill to head off the coming crisis. Such a bill will exact sacrifices and compromises from all sectors, and must control costs and provide universal access to health care. The author outlines proposed bills and other activities that are now being considered, describes a bill that he has helped craft and introduce, and notes that the Bush administration has done an about-face and is now promising a health care bill. He challenges academic medicine to help produce more primary care physicians, gives examples of efforts that are fostering primary care, especially in rural areas, and explains why having more primary care physicians is vital and also a key to cost containment. He ends by again urging the health care community to participate in defining what can be done to avert the coming crisis and establish a workable and equitable health care system.