What the Experts See and Say

The "Consumer as Captain" articles series written by The Citistates Group journalists Neal Peirce and Curtis Johnson are based on their interviews with healthcare experts from around New England, as well as leading national authorities. The following are additional quotes from these interviews that provide further insight into the complex challenges facing New England on the issue of health.

Charles D. Baker

“Patients are finally waking up to the idea every doc and every hospital doesn’t perform every service equally well. The baby boomers are getting to their health need years and they’re brutal consumers.”

Charles D. Baker is President and CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and CEO of the health information website www.healthdialogue.com

Theresa Alberghini DiPalma

“I think people are a lot closer today to agreeing to a healthcare system that covers everyone than they were in the early 90's. I believe we will have a national health care system within a generation, when the middle class is really pinched.”

Theresa Alberghini DiPalma is Senior Vice President for Government and External Relations for Fletcher Allen Health Care (Burlington, Vermont).

Dr. Pablo Rodriguez

“Since people are constantly moving across New England state lines, why in the world wouldn’t we have a New England-wide license for medical practitioners?”

“We need an information technology system that prevents one from making deadly erroneous prescriptions or relying on nurses to see the error of a prescription. Or needless repetition of tests. We’re trying to develop that through our Rhode Island Quality Institute – an information system all the doctors and clinics and hospitals can access.”

Dr. Pablo Rodriguez is the Associate Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Women and Infants Hospital (Providence, Rhode Island), and is the former board chair of the Rhode Island Foundation.

Dr. Jim Squires

“The magnitude of today’s healthcare problem is enormous. For example: New Hampshire spends $6 billion a year on health. By 2010-2011, that number will be $11 billion, way ahead of any expected growth in the gross state product. Neither New Hampshire (nor the nation) can grow its way out of this problem. In 1990, nationwide, 90 percent of non-public employees were covered by health insurance – Now that figure own to 50 percent range. Companies that can are shedding the liability. Health care is eating everything in sight.”

“My roots are in typical American medical model – You have a problem, we’ll fix it. That fails if the problem can’t be fixed – Now what? Today about a third of the population has a chronic illness that’s not fixable – which means the medical model fails. We spend $100,000 when cervical cancer shows up, but little for tests and prevention.”

Dr. Jim Squires is President of Endowment for Health, (Concord, New Hampshire), and is a former gubernatorial candidate.

Dr. John Abramson

The underlying problem is that health care has become a profit-driven industry: not only are health care providers (profit and non-profit alike) focused increasingly on profitability, but the majority of the medical knowledge that guides even the best informed doctors is produced and disseminated by commercial sources whose primary responsibility is to maximize profits, not health. This is the source of our unnecessarily high costs and poor health status. Health care costs could be sharply reduced and our health improved simply by ensuring that research reports in medical journals accurately reflect actual data, and are available for transparent review by drug and health care purchasers – consumers, businesses, state and local governments.

“The best available scientific evidence clearly shows the way to more effective and efficient approaches to health care: excellent and universally accessible primary care; phys ed and healthy foods in schools; health education; and community efforts to promote healthy child development and healthy aging. Well-informed citizens can do more to improve their individual health and fix what ails the American health care system, but real change can begin only with unbiased information and incentives that promote good health.”

John Abramson, M.D. is an award-winning family doctor, on the clinical faculty at Harvard Medical School, and author of the book "Overdosed America."

Sharon Treat

“Were being charged more for prescription drugs than anyone else in the world. Maine legislators have led the way to reduce drug costs through our Maine Rx-Plus program, passed in 2000, setting up a drug discount program for state residents who don’t have access to affordable medications. The law encourages drug company participation because the state has authority to shift purchasing away from those that refuse to participate. And we’re getting significant reductions, even though the pharmaceutical firms have tried to undermine us at every step and spent huge amounts to fight our effort. This is a national effort but it began in New England with Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont legislators, and later Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.”

Sharon Treat is the former Maine Senate majority leader and is currently the Executive Director of the National Legislative Association on Prescription Drug Prices.