Business Left Undone

Basic should also include prevention. Recent data show that 40% of people had not been checked for or were not being treated for hypertension. Ultimately a proportion of those people will have a vascular event. Lifestyle education around diabetes, obesity, and smoking is key.

So everyone should have access to affordable, essential health care. Someone has to pay for that.
Employers should cover some; state and federal governments provide for those who are unable to pay, at some percentage related to the poverty line. Then the market can come forth and offer incremental benefits. We can purchase as individuals, and employers can add on to attract people on a competitive basis.

Why don't we have electronic medical records?
What data should we be collecting? A researcher may want some things; a doctor may need others. There have been no agreed-upon standards. And data collection is tough in a fragmented health-care system. I would set some standards in the use of administration technology. Say, in five years, all claims would be received and paid electronically. We have the technology.

Is universal care possible?
It has to come from the President. Somebody has to stand up and say we expect accessible health care for all people. Not just insurance for all people--that doesn't get you health care if you can't afford the insurance, or there aren't enough facilities and practitioners, or you don't have a way to get to them. Insurance isn't enough.