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Appeal made for nationwide insurance coverage

Ambulatory Surgery Reimbursement Update, April 5, 2005

The chief executive and president of Massachusetts' largest hospital and physician network have issued a national challenge to find a way to provide insurance to millions of uninsured Americans.

In an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, the two executives, Dr. James Mongan, chief executive of Partners HealthCare System, and Dr. Thomas Lee, president of Partners, called for higher taxes and employer-sponsored healthcare to provide the coverage, according to The Boston Globe.

"How can a country as idealistic and generous as the United States fail repeatedly to accomplish in healthcare coverage what every other industrialized nation has achieved?" Mongan and Lee wrote. "One explanation may be that we are not so idealistic or generous as we would like to believe we are."

Mongan and Lee called on doctors to advocate for the changes. According to a 2003 estimate by the Institute of Medicine, it would cost an estimated $34 billion to $69 billion annually for complete coverage. Mongan told the Globe that although there has been talk about nationwide coverage, the issue of money has been the deterrent for action.

"We really wrote this for our colleagues, to say if you're serious about wanting to make the healthcare system work for everyone, you can't just complain," Lee told the Globe. "You have to be willing to advocate for things not pleasant for people to hear."

To view the New England Journal of Medicine's article, click here (Registration required).

To view the Institute of Medicine's report on "Uninsurance in America," click here.

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