IMPROVING hEALTH cARE

November 6, 2008
Letter
Improving Health Care
To the Editor:

Re “Don’t Blame the Uninsured” (editorial, Oct. 30):

I agree with your clarion call to action for universal health coverage. But expanded coverage needs to be coupled with comprehensive change in how health care is provided and how it is reimbursed. Simply insuring the 45 million uninsured under the current system is economically unsustainable and doesn’t cure what really ails the system.

To improve care, reduce the burden of illness and be cost-effective, access to primary care emphasizing prevention, wellness and disease management must be financed adequately, and all health records must be made electronic and universally portable. Our technological infrastructure allows us to withdraw money at any A.T.M. in the world, yet two physicians practicing in the same neighborhood have no way to gain access to or share crucial patient information.

Let’s hope that the next administration will see the wisdom of acting — not just talking — so Americans get the care they deserve, at the right place and time.

Steven M. Safyer
Bronx, Oct. 31, 2008

The writer, a medical doctor, is president and chief executive of Montefiore Medical Center.