Campaign 2000: What's to Be Done About the Health Care Crisis in America?
LOU WATERS, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to take a few minutes now to discuss what's shaping up as a key issue in election 2000, the question of access and cost of health care in this country. Joining me here in Staples Center, Dr. Janice Nelson of the University of Southern California, who's also a candidate for a congressional seat this fall. In Washington joining us, John Emling, from the National Federation of Independent Business, along with Dr. Gigi El-Bayoumi, an professor at the George Washington University Medical Center. Dr. Bayoumi, you're in the trenches. You're there every day. I don't know if you recall that during the Republican convention when former President Ford was taken to the Hahnemann University Medical Center, the attendant doctor on the following day when George Bush stopped over said he had talked to George Bush, gave George Bush an earful of what doctors are looking for in the upcoming policy debate, if there is to be such a thing. What is it that doctors want out of the U.S. health care system?</s>DR. GIGI EL-BAYOUMI, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Well especially from an academic institution which is really suffering and feeling the Medicare cuts that are subsidizing medical -- higher medical education, what we want is to be able to treat all of our patients equally and to be able to give them all the best possible care. We have two types of patients that come in, the very sophisticated patients that have Internet access, that have all the information in the world, great insurance that will cover what they need. And then we see patients who have advanced stages of diseases, such as cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer or prostate cancer because they didn't have the insurance to get the preventive care. We want to be able to take care of patients and give them the very best that this excellent medical system offers. We also want to make sure that we can train physicians for the very sophisticated technologies that are coming out. You know, we now have technologies that are being developed to deliver medications to one cell on a cell-by-cell basis, in nano technology. But can we train these physicians when we're getting budget cuts to academic medical institutions? So those are the two big issues that I, as an educator, I, as somebody who's in the trenches, face on a daily basis.</s>WATERS: Dr. Nelson, what can the politicians do about needs such as those? You're a Democrat. You're running for office. That should be pointed out as we address Al Gore's health care policies. What are they?</s>DR. JANICE NELSON (D), CALIFORNIA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Well top of the list is a patients' bill of rights, which we have been trying to fight to get through Congress and signed into law for the past several years. Also, a prescription drug benefit as part of Medicare is very important to the Democratic agenda.</s>WATERS: And, Mr. Nelson, I would assume that everyone wants access to health coverage for all Americans. It's just a matter of how to go about it, is it not?</s>JOHN EMLING, NFIB NATIONAL HEALTH CARE SPECIALIST: Well that's exactly right. From the small-business perspective, NFIB members, your family farmers, your doctors, as a matter of fact, shopkeepers and local contractors, lack access to affordable health care coverage under the current system. What we're looking for is free-market based solutions that provide them with greater choice, that give them more affordable options to obtain health care coverage.</s>WATERS: So what are you going to tell the viewers and the voters who say, we've heard all this before, we heard this back in 1992 when they were debating national health care policy?</s>EMLING: Well, NFIB members overwhelmingly and repeatedly reject moves toward nationalized health care for a number of reasons, as well. The fact of the matter is that any country that currently has a socialized system, they are experiencing large failures. For instance, it's easier for your cat or dog to receive an MRI here in America for a patient to receive an MRI in Canada. There's waiting lists in excess of two months currently. So certainly what we need is more free-market approach, association health plans allowing small-business owners to ban together across state lines to purchase health care coverage, expanded medical savings accounts, tax credits for the working uninsured, tax deductions for the self-employed, free up the marketplace to empower the consumer, the small-business owner to make more affordable decisions for their families...</s>WATERS: All right, that's a rather long laundry list. How are you going to accomplish it?</s>NELSON: I have to disagree with that. We -- I think the private sector has failed more on large. I think the problem right that we're seeing is the 45 million Americans that don't have health care insurance because it's unaffordable. And right now, it's really a matter of public health and it's a matter of decency. It's interesting. The international Health Organization recently rated the different health care systems throughout the country -- throughout the world, and two countries, Canada and Britain that have socialized medical systems, rated higher than the United States of America. And the reason for that is they have a system. I'm not saying that socialized medicine is the answer. It certainly is not. And I think the private sector still has a place to play in the role of providing health care, but we have to start valuing health care in the system and start looking at it from a totality of all the different...</s>WATERS: We'll see how Al Gore...</s>EL-BAYOUMI: And let me just add this. Oftentimes we look at high technology as being the marker of the best medicine. A lot of what we see is preventable. We're talking about vaccinating people, we're talking about pap smears and mammograms. This is not necessarily on the high end of technology, and it makes sense to pay now rather than to pay much higher prices later...</s>WATERS: Thank...</s>EL-BAYOUMI: ... and to give access to all.</s>WATERS: Thank you all. I knew we would need a lot of time for this, and I'm sure this health care debate will be a major part of this upcoming presidential election campaign. Dr Bayoumi, Mr. Emling, Dr. Janice Nelson, thank you all.