A Lecture Summary

The United States may offer some of the most advanced medicine to its citizens, but its health care system needs fixing, according to one public health analyst.

On March 3, Richard D. Lamm, former Colorado governor and director of the Center for Public Policy and Contemporary Issues at the University of Denver, presented a lecture titled "Redrawing the Health Care Map." He questioned whether the medical community in the United States can continue its practice of trying to give patients any care thought to be beneficial without regard to cost.

The event was the university's first Health Policy Forum, sponsored by the President’s Council and organized by the Institute for the Medical Humanities. As society addresses concerns such as the growing number of uninsured patients and increasing health care costs, these forums will serve as a means of exploring alternative ideas and new perspectives.

Lamm said the government pays for nearly 50 percent of all medical costs in the country. He questioned whether taxpayers should have had to foot the medical costs of Barney Clark, who received an artificial heart, even though the procedure cost more than the entire world spent eradicating smallpox. Lamm asked whether conjoined twins should have been separated when there was a slim chance of survival. "This is the dilemma," he told an audience of more than 90 people.

Lamm pointed out extreme differences between what physicians and public policy-makers consider when they make health care decisions. "You look at a patient, one person. And I look at society," Lamm said. "Your culture thinks economy is not a part of medicine," he said. "My culture believes that money plays a critical role in health care."

Lam said that when taxpayers dollars are used to pay for health care, cost has to be a consideration. "Physicians need to stop ordering expensive tests and procedures just because they think they might be beneficial," he said. He used the analogy of public school administration to make his point. "If school boards made decisions the same way, they would tell teachers to do anything they believe would be beneficial for children and pay no attention to the cost."

The public can no longer afford the current system used by the medical community, according to Lamm. He believes that in order to bring the health-care expenses under control, it’s necessary to change the traditional medical thinking. "There need to be limits," he said. "Setting limits on marginally beneficial medicine allows us to maximize the dollars for the health of a larger group." He does admit that the process of optimizing health expenditures would be difficult.