Spring Break
Rowe Talks Healthcare Economy
Andrew Porter
Issue date: 3/22/06 Section: News
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Rowe was presented by the Global Leadership Commission, a group of UConn Honors students that "seeks to provide a forum for bringing well-known, respected, and dynamic individuals from Connecticut and around the world to the UConn community at Storrs."
"Dr. Rowe is a very influential leader in Connecticut and at the University, we think it's important for students to have this interaction with him," said Sarah Sokoloski, a 6th-semester communication disorders and Spanish major who is part of the Global Leadership Commission.
Rowe was a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, the president of the Mount Sinai Hospital and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and chairman and CEO of Mount Sinai NYU Health.
Rowe's speech began by dispelling some myths about the healthcare industry. Using a system entitled the "Health Care Misery Index," Rowe demonstrated that though America's current healthcare problems are often said to be at an all time high, they are actually much better than they were forty years ago because of the advent of Medicare and Medicaid.
He did, however, highlight many of the problems with the current United States health system.
"Other countries spend less with better results," Rowe, said referring to projections that indicate that by 2013, health care costs will take up 18 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the United States, a number that most experts say is far too high.
Rowe then discussed the three main factors that raise health care costs, aging, new technologies and government regulation.
"As you get old, you get sick." Rowe said. "And new developments like many anti-cancer drugs are very expensive."
He particularly focused on state mandates that drive up costs.
"Health insurance companies misbehaved in the 80s and 90s," Rowe said. "As a result, legislative mandates were handed out, and they went a little far."
Mandates were originally intended to make sure adequate care was given, according to Rowe. Health insurance companies eventually went too far and began to cover such seemingly benign health issues such as jetlag and that there is a direct connection between the amount of mandates a state has and the amount of uninsured people in that state.