In front of a standing-room-only audience Friday afternoon, former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop '37 received the College's Nelson A. Rockefeller Public Service Award and said health care is a right and should be provided to everyone.
Koop spoke on "Health Care: Will Reform Deprive Us of the Opportunities?" in the Hinman Forum in the Rockefeller Center for Social Sciences.
The nation's health care system needs to be reformed now, Koop said, and though President Bill Clinton's plan is not perfect, it should be passed.
Koop, who served as surgeon general under former President Ronald Reagan, has played a key role in the development of the Clinton Administration's health care reform plan and received a public thank-you from the President during his televised address last month.
"At long last, health care reform is at the top of the political agenda," Koop said. "We have the nation and President Clinton to thank for that."
Koop said the Clinton plan is in "the true spirit of compromise."
He said the country cannot afford to lose the opportunity to attack the challenge of health care reform.
Koop said the future of health care goes beyond cutting costs and providing greater access to treatment.
"I have stretched my expectations for health care to match my vision of a 'healthful society' prevailing in this country," Koop said.
Koop said the best way to help the system is to not use it. He emphasized preventive medicine, which he said includes making lifestyle changes.
"We must revise our lifestyles so that we use the system less frequently," he said. "The best way to save money is to stay well."
Koop said excessive tests and fraud result in $200 billion in unnecessary medical costs each year.
"Health care is our most costly enterprise," he said. "More is not necessarily always better and in the case of health care, can even be hazardous."
Koop said medical school education must keep pace with the 21st century by focusing on the human side of medicine. "Emphasis must be taken away from the curing aspects of medicine and put upon the caring aspects," he said.
Together with his colleagues, Koop is implementing such an approach at the new Koop Institute at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, which attempts to "humanize" medical education.
Not only is caring important for the patient physically, but it instills a trust between patient and doctor that substantially decreases the incidence of malpractice lawsuits, which have created "unbelievable debt," Koop said.
Koop said conflicts between the agendas of everyone involved in the system has created a situation that denies treatment access to patients.
Koop proposed a marriage of guaranteed health care and education in preschool children because many of the learning problems preschool children have are due to health problems.
Reporter Colin Grey contributed to this article.
