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Irwin Redlener, MD,
Clinical Professor of Population and Family Health and Director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness

Dr. Redlener Applauds Historic Effort but Points out Potential Risk if America’s Safety Net Programs Are Lost in Final Healthcare Reform

On December 2nd, the New England Journal of Medicine published a perspective opinion piece addressing healthcare reform, co-authored by Irwin Redlener, MD, Director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and President of the Children’s Health Fund; and Roy Grant, MA, of the Children’s Health Fund, a national organization that advocates for and develops primary care programs for disadvantaged and medically underserved children.

This expert opinion piece applauds the historic efforts to pass health insurance reform and make healthcare more available to Americans, but cautions stakeholders to strongly consider the potential consequences of eliminating America’s safety net programs, currently insuring 100 million people, in the final healthcare reform legislation. This article also points out that the conditions of poverty, isolation and population disparities which made a “healthcare safety net” necessary in the first place will remain, regardless of reforms which may be enacted in the months to come.

"We applaud Congress and the President for their efforts to produce an historic health reform bill which will provide tens of millions of currently uninsured Americans access to secure health insurance coverage,” said Dr. Redlener, also professor of Clinical Population & Family Health and clinical professor of Pediatrics at Columbia University Medical Center. “Nevertheless, with more than 45 million Americans uninsured and many more underinsured, with more than 65 million Americans living in federally designated Health Professional Shortage Areas, and with many communities lacking sufficient specialty-care services, the existing safety net is simply inadequate - and is continuing to deteriorate and needs to be addressed.”

“We need to recognize that the pervasive negative impact of poverty and disparities on the health status of so many communities will not be ‘cured’ by health insurance reform alone. Preserving and strengthening ‘safety net’ programs will continue to be a critical need for the foreseeable future,” concluded Dr. Redlener.

For more information please visit the New England Journal of Medicine article.