Channeling David E. Rogers, MD: the moral imperative for health care reform.

摘要

IN 1994, THE YEAR THE Clinton plan for universal health care died in Congress, David E. Rogers, MD, passed away. Rogers, a former dean of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, and the founding president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), was an advocate for the poor, social justice, and expanding the benefits of health care to all Americans. Fifteen years later, the political will and the public demand for health care reform are reconverging, only this time without the inspiration and moral presence of Dr Rogers. Because David Rogers may be unknown to a younger generation, we write this commentary to bring his views to the current debate. Without his voice, it may be too easy to see this round of reform as fiscally driven and not as a moral imperative. Rogers noted a similar trend: Concern about dollars is prompting rapid and major alterations in how medical care is organized, financed, and delivered. Those changes have been dominated by economics-not issues of equity or effectiveness or quality.