The main domestic issue drawing the attention of politicians and voters alike in the upcoming election is health care reform, according to yesterday's "Politics of Health Care Reform" panel.
"Clearly this is an extraordinarily important topic," said CBS News national correspondent Wyatt Andrews, University alumnus and forum moderator. Andrews was joined by panelists with backgrounds in the medical field in the forum, hosted by the University's Center for Politics. Participants addressed the current problems with the health care system in America as well as possible solutions.
Galen Institute President Grace-Marie Turner, noted that the main problem with the health care system today is price. While current health care plans are expensive for Americans, many of the proposed plans of presidential candidates could ultimately cost the government a great deal of money as well.
Turner argued that, in terms of health care effectiveness, cost "continues to be the core issue."
Additionally, Turner said the American health care system is an "international embarrassment." According to Turner, nearly 47 million Americans are currently uninsured, whereas many countries offer national health care systems for their citizens.
Robert Moffit, director of The Heritage Foundation's Center for Health Policy, said he believes there must be some give and take in order to improve the American health care system.
"We must settle for something less than a comprehensive change if we want to see change [at all]," Moffit said.
The panelists also addressed the significant role that health care reform will play in the upcoming 2008 election.
Health policy analyst Carolyn Engelhard, an assistant professor at the University, pointed out that those individuals who actually vote may not be the ones most effected by proposed health care reforms.
"Most voters in this country are not the uninsured," Engelhard said, adding that she is wary of insured Americans' interest concerning their uninsured counterparts.
"Appealing to the [insured's] sense of societal justice may not be enough," she said.
Panelists discussed both the market-based health care reforms proposed by many Republican candidates and the government-based or combination public/private health care initiatives sponsored by many Democratic candidates.
"There is too much cherry picking and unfairness in the market system," said Irwin Redlener, president and co-founder of The Children's Health Fund.
Many of the panelists agreed that the person elected in the 2008 presidential election will be the deciding factor in the direction of health care reform.
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