Controversial Health Secretary Louis Sullivan

After reading the Jefferson Morley interview with Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan (Opinion, Aug. 12), I can now understand why Sullivan was so poorly received in San Francisco. Even in print, Sullivan (as representative of the Bush Administration) sidesteps the issue of AIDS. He demonstrates the Administration’s inability to deal directly with issues of research funding, home health care, sex education, AIDS discrimination, etc. In response to a question addressing the U.S. Immigration Service’s prohibition on admitting international visitors who test HIV-positive, Sullivan dismisses the issue as a “problem for Congress to address.”

Concerning other issues, Sullivan cites “changes in behavior” as the magic bullet which would bring down health care costs in the U.S. The ambiguity of that statement is profound. Who should change what behavior?

Admitting that waiting in long lines at “charity hospitals” is inconvenient, Sullivan projects that in five years, the situation should improve. Yet, how can anyone have much confidence in a few ill-defined programs which surely will be affected by the budget cuts that must be implemented in the effort to contain our rising federal debt? Sullivan offers little hope to the millions of Americans who do not have health insurance today.

While Sullivan may have private views which run counter to the official line taken by the White House, he does not offer any. The U.S. is in dire need of a vigorous, creative, wholesale re-conceptualization of our health care system. In spite of this, in public and print, it seems to me that Sullivan appears to be but an emasculated functionary presiding over a government department which receives little attention or support from the Administration.

Clearly, Sullivan has long since silenced any conservative detractors. He is safely in their camp. That is, unless Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) grows weary of Sullivan’s anti-smoking campaign. “Just say no to cigarettes”--what an embarrassing “goal” for a government leader to have.

RONALD J. FONTENOT

Los Angeles