However, Dr. Pardes noted that not all Medicare policy is in need of reform and that the program's commitment to medical schools and teaching hospitals, the recognized leaders of American health care, must be revived and preserved. By virtue of the blend of their functions, patients are cared for with the highest quality expertise in a setting in which new doctors can learn. The committee also heard from William L. Roper, M.D., dean, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, who addressed the private sector's role in fostering the delivery of organized medicine. Although Dr. Roper favors further reliance on the marketplace to control health care spending, he acknowledged the need to retain some form of government oversight. While Dr. Roper stressed the role of the private sector in a system of organized care, Uwe Reinhardt, Ph.D., professor, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, countered that, to date, very few private plans have proven capable of delivering a consistent level of high quality and organized care.
Private plans enter and exit the market providing very little stability for seniors.
The Medicare program, he stated, is the only permanent system of care in this country making it the most popular among consumers. It was the consumer who John Wennberg, M.D., M.P.H., director, Center for Evaluative Clinical Sciences, Dartmouth College, focused on in his testimony before the committee. Dr. Wennberg called for a system that empowers the consumer and provides physicians with an incentive to inform patients on proper preventive medicine. Today, he argued, the government provides an incentive to deliver medical services to patients. Yet, the incentive must be to inform and counsel patients to allow them to be better informed and make sound decisions.