Event preview
“Underserved and High Risk Populations in the United States: Taking Action for Comprehensive Primary Health Care Renewal”
8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursday
Morehouse School of Medicine, National Center for Primary Care Auditorium
720 Westivew Drive. S.W.
Free and open to the public. Registration is recommended, but walk-ins will be accepted.
http://MsmHealthcareRenewalEvent.com
Six former U.S. surgeons general will gather Thursday in Atlanta for a conference on health disparities in underserved and at-risk communities.
Th conference, hosted by the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine, comes at a time when many Americans are signing up for new health care options through the insurance exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act.
It is also being held ahead of the 50th anniversary of the first Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health. The milestone report contained the first comprehensive look at the adverse impact of smoking and set the tone for changes in society’s views about tobacco use and prompted health policy changes.
Scheduled to join Dr. David Satcher, who was the 16th U.S. surgeon general, are Dr. Regina Benjamin, Dr. Richard H. Carmona, Dr. Joycelyn Elders, Dr. Kenneth P. Moritsugu and Dr. Antonia Novello.
Here’s what Satcher had to say about the conference, health care and smoking:
On the United States as one of the wealthiest nations in the world, yet one plagued by health issues:
The disconnect, I believe, is that in the past we have not supported health promotion and disease prevention. And given what we know about social determinants of health, then we know that social issues can impact negatively on health outcomes. And we certainly have not invested in creating the kind of environments that encourage people to lead healthy lifestyles. There are exceptions in recent years, but I think when we compare ourselves to other countries, we have not adequately invested in prevention, we have not adequately targeted the social determinants of health. The most important of which, of course, would relate to public health and prevention, and would certainly relate to education and income.
On the final word on the ACA:
I don’t know what the final word would be, but I know that for many of us, we’re looking to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act as a way of getting more people covered with insurance because we’re committed to the elimination of disparities in health and we believe one way in which the Affordable Care Act could impact that would be to see that more people are covered with insurance. Another way, of course, is to incentivize preventive care in physicians’ offices, which the act does, and not allowing insurance companies to exclude people because of pre-existing conditions. Many people who suffer on the wrong end of disparities have pre-existing conditions that make it difficult for them to get coverage. The Affordable Care Act will end that. The Affordable Care Act will also redefine quality of care and, therefore, hold providers to outcome measures as opposed to the quantity or volume of care that is provided. … The Affordable Care Act will incentivize prevention in the community and actually support interventions that will make it easier for people to engage in healthy lifestyles and will incentivize those.
On the 50th anniversary of the Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health:
Much has changed. It is true that, at the time of that report in 1964, almost half of the American people were smokers. Today, that number is closer to 20 percent, and I agree that that is still too high. But millions of lives have been saved because of the fact that fewer Americans smoke and fewer Americans begin smoking.
