the official daily publication of the AORN Congress
We're in this togetherKimberly Retzlaff
AORN Journal Editor
Tackling the topic of health care in less than one hour is nearly as daunting a challenge as reforming health care in a single presidency. But David Gergen did it during a General Session, “A Look at the Issues Facing the Obama Administration” at AORN's 57th Congress in Denver.
The current health care debate is “one of the most important debates of our lifetimes,” Gergen told session attendees. The health care bill itself could go either way, and is currently tipping toward failure. Whether it passes or fails, however, “this is the end of the beginning, not the beginning of the end,” he said. “This kind of controversy and political focus on health care is going to continue for the rest of our lives.”
One basic issue facing the bill is that it is currently more a health insurance bill than a health reform bill, Gergen noted. Other issues are that the U.S. government will inevitably become more involved in health care because of the rising costs—federal and state governments currently pay more than half of our nation’s health care costs. Health care will continue to be an issue because of how expensive it has become.
Despite the controversy over the health care bill, health care reform is not an option at this point, Gergen stated. Reform is needed not only because of American deficit issues, but because when any one area of a budget becomes as overgrown as medicine has become in America, other investments like education will be “crowded out.”
The solution to our nation’s increasing health care issues may lie in “citizen engagement.” Gergen urged session attendees to not only invite politicians into their hospitals and medical centers to get a ground’s-eye-view of what the issues are, but to try to understand health care in the larger context of the country’s political issues. He also suggested that our country’s politicians may not be able to solve these problems on their own and that it will take citizens getting involved and innovating to effect real change.
“We’re going to have to innovate our way out of our troubles,” he said. “People in the field have to be looking for solutions and see if we can’t come up with the answers. . . . Yes, we need to understand politics, have our voices heard, be at table, but the most important thing you can do for America is back in the operating rooms working with colleagues to see if we can’t change these institutions from within. Bring change and recognize at some deep level, as Americans, we’re all in this together.”
Learn more about David Gergen.
Read more stories in Wednesday's Edition.
Back to Congress News home.