Mayo Clinic aims for health system reform

Nearly three-quarters of attendees at a recent symposium said health insurance for all is a moral imperative.

By Amy Snow Landa, AMNews correspondent. June 19, 2006.

Rochester, Minn. -- Policy leaders gathered at a Mayo Clinic health system reform meeting agreed on one thing -- the nation needs universal health care coverage. But they disagreed fundamentally on how to accomplish this goal, with some arguing that states should take the lead and others advocating a fresh national approach.

The Mayo Clinic held the three-day symposium late last month as a first step in a national, long-term effort to develop consensus on the issue. The event drew more than 250 experts in health care, business, government and academia to Rochester, Minn.

An electronic poll of attendees found that 74% agreed or strongly agreed there is a moral imperative for all U.S. citizens to have health insurance. An estimated 46 million Americans are now uninsured.

Sitting on a panel of five health policy experts, Stuart Butler, PhD, vice president of domestic and economic policy studies at the Heritage Foundation, promoted the state-based approach to health system reform. The foundation is a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C.

"The only way we can do it is incrementally, and we must do it through the states," Dr. Butler argued. Americans "are highly resistant to big changes, and doing it through the states is the only way we'll see any movement," he added.

David Kendall, senior health policy fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., agreed that policy-makers should "look to the states" to make progress toward universal health care coverage. PPI is a center-left think tank.