Amler: "we never know when health care is needed"

CARMEL — Healthcare is one of America’s most vital resources because it affects everyone.

Healthcare in Crisis: Identifying the Problems and Developing Solutions was the focus of a three hour long symposium Wednesday when Putnam Hospital Center and the Northern Metropolitan Hospital Association conducted the public forum.

Dr. Robert Amler, Dean of the School of Public Health at New York Medical College, described healthcare as a “reserve that is desperately needed. The worst thing is that we never know when health care is needed. We are all just one bad lab test or one serious accident away from needing a lot of health care. Paying for health care is another story.”

Residents throughout the region often undergo terribly frustrating experiences to get the care they need due to complex systems in place.

Dr. Amler provided this analogy to the 75 in attendance: “When one orders a meal in a restaurant or a batch of lumber to do a job around the house he or she has time to plan or think and decide what is needed and how much he can afford. With health care, many of these decisions are difficult to make because the individual is unaware of the contingencies and what will be the outcome. The need is even greater than that meal in the restaurant or a load of lumber because often the need for help is critical.”

Dr. Michael Rosenberg, president of the Medical Society of New York, called the problem with today’s healthcare system the “third person in the room. The unseen representative of the insurance company often determines what care is appropriate and non-appropriate and whether a test should be ordered or not be ordered. Today’s consumer population is for the most part highly educated. Our health care system is the worlds’ best from the physician and hospital side. It is these two sides that must be allowed to determine care not a group of insurance company representatives or lawyers.”

Vallencia Lloyd, deputy director of the state Health Department’s Division of Managed Care, told the gathering that “managed care brings accountability. Is it perfect? No! Despite this managed care addresses the needs of all New Yorkers.”

Dr. Rosenberg disagreed. “Insurance companies across our state are achieving record profits and surpluses even in a time of financial meltdown. New York’s current health care system premiums don’t benefit patients or physicians or hospitals but instead are spent on administrative costs and profits.”