Health Care Reform Won’t Happen Overnight

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health

A few weeks ago I spoke with a group of graduate students at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health about health care in America today. We talked about where the American Hospital Association (AHA) stands on reform, what to expect in future health care trends, and when to anticipate seeing real change in the system.

The big news in recent weeks is that both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate voted to approve health care reform bills that include many of the key elements of health care reform addressing access, cost, and quality. The votes were clearly partisan and the proposed bills are far from perfect, but at least there is now a formal legislation-based platform for debate.

But no matter how quickly Congress may approve any form of health care legislation, it’s probably going to be some time before average Americans start to see noticeable changes in the health care system.

Most proposals would begin to introduce elements of health care reform over several years.  But I believe most consumers understand that there is a real world, practical need  to implement at least some basic access, cost and quality changes in the health care system in the U.S.  without years of delay.  In fact, some important fundamental changes are long overdue.  And although we are talking about a very complex system with many very positive and world-class parts, health care providers and systems need to start seriously working without delay on advances in clinical care and information. We all know there are many improvements that can be made, and while I believe that organizations like WakeMed that have the resources and the expertise need to be on the leading edge, I also believe we are in a strong position to help smaller hospitals and community providers with their own move toward access, cost and quality advances.   We all need to commit to working closer together for the benefit of patients.

So while some changes will likely begin to take place in the next few years, many of the reforms being discussed today won’t become reality overnight – though the young Public Health students I spoke with will see meaningful change during their lifetime. And from what I saw in the classroom a few weeks ago in Chapel Hill, I truly believe that some of these students will be the ones to instigate change and improve our health care system. What an impressive group of students! This is no real surprise, I should note, given the strength, commitment to excellence and highly talented faculty at the UNC Gillings Global School of Public Health.  We are fortunate in North Carolina to have many fantastic public and private institutions of high education.

As Carl Sagan said, “In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.” And that means we’ve still got a lot of work ahead of us to fix our health care system. And, as the AHA notes, and as I told the UNC Public Health students, reforming the health care system in America has to be “an evolution and not a revolution.” But regardless of the timing, patients must remain our primary and central focus. Health care is, after all, still about people helping people.