THOUSAND OAKS : Koop Says Health System in Trouble
Dr. C. Everett Koop this week predicted bankruptcy for the American health-care system unless reforms are made by a coalition of patients, providers, lawyers and insurance companies.
In a speech at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, the former U.S. surgeon general called health-care delivery and costs a shell game and a national disgrace that will change only when the American middle-class’s wallet is sufficiently pinched. He advocated putting healthy and unhealthy patients together in one insurance pool to spread costs and standardize procedures.
Koop also challenged local medical professionals to abolish the current consumer-provider relationship of doctor and patient and return to preventive medicine.
He said the public is greedy in its expectations for medical miracles, which it can’t afford, and hospitals copy each other in acquiring unwarranted diagnostic equipment.
Koop asked for malpractice reform to include compulsory binding arbitration.
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