AAUW Held October Meeting

The American Association of University Women’s Garden City Branch held an important meeting on October 4, 2004 at the Garden City library. The topic was: The Future of Health Care, Yours, Mine and Ours. Can we turn to the American Medical Association for answers?

Our special guest speaker was Robert R. McMillan J.D., partner in the law firm of Fishbein, Badillo, Wagner and Harding. Mr. McMillan’s resume includes the founding of the L.I.Housing Partnership Inc. in 1987 and a run for the U.S.Senate in 1988. At Present, Mr. McMillan co-hosts Face-Off , a PBS television show seen throughout the metropolitan New York area.

Currently, Robert R. McMillan is the first non-physician member of the American Medical Association Board of Trustees.

The theme of Mr. McMillan’s speech concerned the complexity of health care including: expensive research and development, new technologies, new doctor training in advanced specialties, and new pharmaceuticals, all of which add years to our lives, but require additional cost for our medical coverage.

Mr. McMillan explained that this additional cost was a big burden to businesses where medical coverage increased the prices of their products.

The real challenge is how to cover the 45 million uninsured Americans. There are three choices:

1. Single payer, where the government pays for basic converge,

2. Universal coverage, where government and employers share the cost.

3. Personalized health and medical savings accounts plus Catastrophic Insurance, which would allow consumers to save money tax-free for health care purposes.

The American Medical Association supports the latter.

The audience was large and very attentive. The questions were often personal, reflecting difficulties with the present day uneven distribution of medical care.