Mr. Forbes observed that when you purchase auto insurance, you don't expect to get you car washes, oil changes and new tires paid for. The health care insurance system, by analogy, is designed to provide services that individuals can and will provide for themselves. Allowing individuals to use and control their health care needs and dollars would have an enormous positive effect on the system. He said that every American should have the same benefit of tax deductions for health care coverage as corporations and large employers. It's quite simple.
Health care is big business and big dollars.
But change is in the wind. Change is inevitable as health care moves toward a new model of cost, evidence-based procedures, patient satisfaction and outcomes. The sessions were filled to capacity with participants wanting to learn everything from disease management to information technology. All of them agreed that health care will be one of the highest priorities for Congress in this and the next legislative session. John Weeks, editor of The Integrator, a widely read newsletter on the incorporation of complementary and alternative health care into the system, was moderator for many of the complementary sessions.