She's been there for 11 years and counting, and it feels like home. She's got a dizzying list of state contracts to investigate a broad array of research topics, only the most recent being the state of long-term care in America, training for public health employees, control for chronic disease and disaster preparedness for the elderly. She's authored or edited six books and has written extensively on health care and public policy for a wide array of academic journals. Cowart knows her subject intimately and is frustrated by recent trends in health care that have seemingly turned it into a profit-making game at the expense of the people it purports to help. They're being shaped in a fragmented way, instead of with an overall plan.
Market forces drive health care now more than the rational needs of the population does.
Cowart has worked with the state of Florida to provide guidance to those making several of the state's laws and credits its health care system for the elderly, which she says is well-designed. But such services simply aren't funded at the level necessary to fully carry out their missions. The number of state dollars to take care of the elderly is not increasing markedly. So even though the actual delivery system for services is much better than it was 10 years ago, fewer services are being delivered. We're not taking really good care of our elders.