Christian Medical Association CEO Dr. David Stevens, M.D., agreed with statements from Senator Hillary Clinton this week that more Americans are open to the idea of "universal health care" because the nation's current health care system has deteriorated. However, the physician warns, there are still important principles Christians need to consider in thinking about a "universal health care" approach.
In Iowa this week, Senator Clinton told ABC's Good Morning America there was "no doubt about it" -- that the United States will have universal health care if she is elected president in 2008. Clinton said the American people will make universal health care an issue because of the failures of current health care coverage in America, which she sees as a whole different atmosphere than when she tried a universal coverage plan with husband and former President Bill Clinton in the early 90s.
Dr. Stevens of the Christian Medical Association (CMA) does agree that America's health care system is definitely broken. "It is costing us two and a half times more per person on health care in this country than other western countries, and in some instances our care is not as good," he points out.
Also, some of the same concerns physicians had about universal health care during Bill Clinton's administration are still valid now, the CMA spokesman adds. "Physicians were more concerned, especially in the early 90s, about increasing government control of health care and the bureaucracy that would result," the doctor says -- bureaucracy, he emphasizes, that may add up to 30 to 50 percent of health care costs and that makes decisions instead of giving patients choices in their health care coverage.
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