A flock of medical and public policy students and professors descended on Duke South Clinic Amphitheater to discuss health care reform in Canada and the United States.
Canadian journalist Jeff Simpson and panelists from four of Duke’s graduate schools discussed the issue over cakes and cookies. Simpson, author of the book 'Chronic Condition,' examined the way Canada and the United States see each other's health care system as the enemy.
“It’s the boogie man on each side,” Simpson said. “Our health care system is a socialized system you don’t want to adopt, and your health care system is an unfair, socially unjust system we don’t want to adopt."
Simpson noted that both systems face many challenges, including determining access based on need, not income. He said that doctors should not be inclined to "check your wallet before they check your pulse."
Panel members included Kevin Schulman, Gregory Mario and Jeremy Mario professor at the Duke Fuqua School of Business, Don Taylor, associate professor of public policy; Barak Richman, Edgar P. and Elizabeth C. Bartlett professor of law, and Sandra Danoff, senior vice president for organizational transformation and business development office for Duke Medicine.
The panel fielded questions from audience members about death panels and controlling health care costs, among other topics.
Danoff said the cost of health care is greater than its value in both America and Canada, but that it is discussed as an active problem that needs a solution.
Although multiple panelists noted that five percent of the population accounts for 50 percent of health care costs, Taylor said there is no way to effectively stop this pattern as the 50 percent is mostly spent on end-of-life care, which is unpredictable.
“The objective is to show that defense of the status quo in the United States and in Canada are both wrong,” said moderator Mac McCorkle, associate professor of the practice of public policy. “We’ve got to take a fresh look at the systems, and we want to emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of solving these issues. That is distinctively Duke.”
Fuqua and the Sanford School of Public Policy sponsored the event.
Audience member Lauren Dame, associate director for genome ethics, law and policy, noted that the different backgrounds of each panelist made the event more interesting.
“There are so many myths about the Canadian system, so it was nice to have a Canadian here to explain some of them," said Lauren Dame, an audience member and associate director for genome ethics, law and policy. "[The panelists] had different backgrounds so you get different snapshots with such different perspectives.”
Taylor noted that he enjoyed the host of perspectives the panel provided.
“One of the most exciting things about being at Duke is having faculty interacting,” Taylor said in an interview after the panel. “Duke did this before it was cool. It is a true strength to think of a problem in different ways.”
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