The Nation : Koop Calls Health Care in U.S. Unfair

Surgeon General C. Everett Koop said that the U.S. health care system is unfair to millions of Americans, and he called for the appointment of a presidential commission to draft a plan for change. In a commencement address to graduates of the University of Massachusetts in Boston, Koop catalogued the ills of the medical delivery and insurance system, laying particular emphasis on inequities. “Our current system of health care is not fair, it’s not just and it’s not the morally strong system this country deserves,” he said. The 72-year-old Koop, who is retiring this year after eight years as surgeon general, cited estimates that 37 million Americans have no health insurance, while millions of others have only partial coverage. He said health care costs have been rising at two to three times the rate of inflation, and public expectations of medical care are “fast outracing our ability to pay for them.”