A Prescription for U.S. Healthcare

SPECIAL ADDITION

At 1:00 p.m., before Himmelstein's presentation, there will be a free screening of "Sicko," the controversial Michael Moore documentary on U.S. health care. The film will be shown in Ballroom B of the Campus Center. 

Dr. David Himmelstein
Co-Founder Physicians for a National Health Program

NJIT Campus Center Ballroom
November 7, 2007, 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm

Download the flyer (PDF, 2.5 MB)

Obtaining adequate healthcare at a reasonable cost is a national issue of great concern for the majority of people in the United States.  It is also the issue that Dr. David Himmelstein will address in his Technology and Society Forum presentation on Wednesday, November 7.

As Dr. Himmelstein will discuss in the context of the remedy advocated by Physicians for a National Health Program, lack of insurance and other problems paying for care endanger the health of millions.  More Americans lack health insurance today than at any time since the start of Medicare and Medicaid in the mid 1960s.  Meanwhile, workers are paying a higher share of premiums (and larger co-payments and deductibles) as firms shift costs onto employees.  Many of those with no, or poor, coverage forego care for potentially life-threatening symptoms such as chest pain or a breast lump.  Women frequently delay prenatal care because they're uninsured or unable to pay.  HMOs often erect barriers to care, even in emergencies.  For terminally ill patients and their families, the burden of illness if often compounded by financial suffering.  About half of all bankruptcies involve illness or medical debts.

Dr. Himmelstein, associate professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, practices primary care internal medicine and servers as the chief of the Division of Social and Community Medicine at Cambridge Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  He received his MD degree from Columbia University and completed training in internal medicine at Highland Hospital, University of California San Francisco, and a fellowship in gernal internal medicine at Harvard.  In addition to being a founder of Physicians for a National Heath Program, he servers as co-director of the Center for National Health Program Studies at Cambridge Hospital/Harvard Medical School.

Co-sponsored by the NJIT Technology and Society Forum Committee, Albert Dorman Honors College, and Sigma Xi.