Doctors and nurses are in and out of the room, white coats and ID badges whizzing by. Machines whir as those in the room glance worriedly at the displayed graph. Suddenly, the line goes flat -- in an instant, hospital personnel are by the bed, applying the defibrillator paddles to a young girl's chest. A sigh of relief is heard as her heart starts pumping, and panic subdued, worry sets in again.
His first night in pediatrics, University Provost Arthur Garson, former Medical School dean, treated a 5-year-old with a severe heart problem. It was just one night, but Garson's relationship with the girl and her parents continued long after. He watched the girl grow up through elementary school and middle school. And then, when she was 19, he got a phone call from the girl's parents: She had passed away.
Investigation revealed she had not refilled her heart medicine. Because the family's Medicaid had run out, she had stopped refilling the expensive pills in an effort to save her parents' money.
"I'm doing this because it's personal," Garson said, explaining his involvement in the battle for universal health care coverage.
He and Assistant Medical Education Prof. Carolyn Engelhard, a health care analyst, recently coauthored a book titled "Health Care Half-Truths: Too Many Myths, Not Enough Reality." The book was the inspiration for the Center for Politics's The Politics of Health Care Reform forum, held in the Rotunda Dome Room Monday.
CBS News National Correspondent Wyatt Andrews moderated the panel discussion featuring Engelhard; Robert Moffit, director of the Center for Health Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation; Irwin Redlener, president of The Children's Health Fund; Stephen Schoenbaum, executive vice president for programs at The Commonwealth Fund; and Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute. The panelists gave introductory remarks, discussed the issue of health care reform and presidential candidates' health care platforms via questions from Andrews, and then opened the floor to questions from the audience.
Garson gave the keynote address, beginning with the story of his 5-year-old patient. When thinking about the 47 million Americans without health insurance, "think about them as 47 million individuals," Garson said.
He outlined five general principles that he thinks everyone, for the most part, agrees upon: Health coverage should be universal, low-cost and high-quality; wasted resources and coverage disparities should be eliminated; and expanded health coverage should be paid for in a visible and accountable way. The question, he said, is whether these goals are politically achievable.
Garson believes it will be at least 2020 before a base floor of health insurance is available to everyone. In the meantime, he said, there will be greater pushes toward national health reform from those who are insured, either because they are worried they could be left without health insurance or for altruistic motives.
Andrews noted health care is the second most important issue in the upcoming election according to public polls, following the Iraq war.
"It is the top domestic issue," Andrews said. "Not global warming, education ... or immigration. And here's why: The 47 million Americans without health insurance [are only] a snapshot."
If anything, the "staggering" statistics "understate the fear and vulnerability of thousands or millions more," Andrews said.
After indicating that the panel should focus "in an unabashedly political way" on what the United States should do about health care reform and what type of reform will be possible after the 2008 elections, Andrews introduced the panelists and handed the floor over to them.
Redlener pointed out that as annual aggregate health care costs steadily increase to $4 trillion by 2015, effects on the economy will be "vastly unpredictable." He also outlined several health care myths, such as the alleged high quality of health care in the United States -- which is ranked 37th worldwide by the World Health Organization for overall health care quality -- and that having a health insurance card guarantees health care.
Redlener also stressed the importance of having national leadership that understands what to do and how to achieve its goals.
"If we don't deal with the cost [of health care], we will just be throwing money into a great, big, administrative trash can," he said.
He pointed out that the implications of health care extend to the future economic stability of the nation and national security. He noted that in Idaho, for example, when the National Guard called for a deployment of 2,000 reserves to Iraq, 40 percent were disqualified because their families' insurance plans had not been able to cover their childhood dental expenses. Large sums of money were spent so these soldiers could improve their dental health and be sent to Iraq.
Turner spoke about the advantages of market-based health care. Calling U.S. health care coverage in its current state "an international embarrassment," she advocated portable health insurance that can be moved from job to job.
"We are unique in the developed world in tying health insurance to the workplace," Turner said.
Moffit encouraged everyone "to keep some perspective," pointing out that many good things have happened in the world of American health care: Heart disease deaths have decreased by 40 percent and Americans have won more than 85 Nobel Prizes in medicine, to name a couple. The trick, Moffit said, is to figure out how to preserve the good aspects of the system while eliminating the bad.
Moffit added that he believes reforming the American private health care system will require reform in the health insurance market and in tax treatment of health insurance.
"The fact is, Americans have no control in the current system," Moffit said. "For every one dollar spent in the health care system, citizens control 13 cents. You have to upgrade [that] amount."
Moffit advocated creating a national market for health insurance, in which a Virginian resident should be able to by New York insurance, if he or she should so desire.
He added that he does not foresee a comprehensive overhaul of U.S. health care after the 2008 election because of a deeply divided Congress and an American public that is unclear about what it wants.
Engelhard brought up the fact that in 1992, when health care reform was the second most important issue of the presidential election next to the economy, everyone thought this reform was going to be enacted.
"Guess what?" Engelhard said. "It didn't happen."
She added, however, that "national anxiety" about health care coverage is growing now.
"It's palpable; I can feel it," she said. Englehard cautioned, however, that no matter how much momentum or bipartisan support exists, there is no guarantee for health care reform because everyone has his or her own solution. Additionally, Englehard noted "the political reality [is that] every health care dollar spent is someone's income."
In the end, Engelhard said, successful health care reform will depend on ensuring votes by "marrying good policies with good-enough politics"
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