Health care reform has sparked one of the most contentious political debates in recent months, with Republicans and Democrats ferociously disputing the matter. In September, Republican Rep. Joe Wilson from South Carolina notoriously received a formal rebuke from the House for shouting, "You lie!" during President Obama's discourse on health care reform. And government officials are not the only ones focused on health care — in an April 2009 CBS News/New York Times poll, respondents ranked health care as the second most important national issue, after the economy. Likewise, in an August Wall Street Journal poll, 63 percent of respondents said that providing all Americans with affordable health care was a priority.
So, to what extent are Jumbos engaged in the health care reform debate?
Thus far, organized involvement has been limited. A contingent of Tufts Democrats took part in a rally in support of reform on Boston Common several weeks ago, and the presidents of both the Tufts Democrats and Tufts Republicans said that they are collectively planning a debate on the issue in the near future. Additionally, according to Public Health at Tufts President Nadine Kesten, the Junior Class Council is organizing another health care discussion event.
But unlike on Capitol Hill, health care reform has provoked little publicized outrage among Jumbos. Cole Archambault, the former editor-in-chief of TuftScope: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Health, Ethics, and Policy, believes that the lack of discourse on campus is due to the fact that all Tufts students are insured.
"Since all Tufts students are required by Massachusetts law to have health insurance, I doubt any reforms currently proposed would affect the average Tufts student," he said. Current TuftScope Editor-in-Chief Michael Shusterman, a senior, noted that "None of the bills currently moving through Congress will provide a benefits package that is likely to be more generous than the current insurance available."
Since graduating seniors will soon lose their current coverage, however, Tufts Democrats President Andrea Lowe, a senior, thinks that students should educate themselves on the issue.
"Since we will soon be in the challenging position of trying to pick and pay for our own insurance, it is important that students understand the facts of what will happen to our health care system," Lowe said, noting that proposed reforms, even if passed today, would not come into effect until after many current students have graduated. "I don't think the debate is going to resolve quickly or easily," she added. "It will definitely be into 2010 before a reform bill is passed."
Furthermore, according to Shusterman, many students choose not to immerse themselves in the health care reform debate because it is just too complex.
"Health care is a topic that is rarely discussed by many students, even those in the premedical community, when it's not a major political issue," Shusterman said. "Health care policy, bioethics, medical economics, etc., are all involved, intrinsically complicated topics that require substantial time to follow and understand."
In fact, when compared with the general public, Shusterman does not think that Tufts students on the whole have a better grasp of the issue.
"Students have a general understanding of the issues, but, unfortunately, often a superficial one," Shusterman said. "It's hard to blame them … the media does not make it easy to learn about healthcare-related issues outside of these types of political debates."
Lowe agreed with Shusterman's assessment of the state of the health care reform debate at Tufts.
"I believe … that many people do not know the facts of the proposed reforms, or even much about the current system, given that very few students purchase their own health insurance," Lowe said.
Even among students who are well-versed in health care policy, there was considerable disagreement about what degree of reform was necessary, if any at all.
"Sixty-five to 80 percent of Americans have health insurance and are reasonably happy with it," Tufts Republicans President Michael Hawley said. "[Apart from this group] you're left with a very small number of people. The word ‘reform' tends to imply a correction of flaws, whereas the current proposed Democrat plans fix almost none of the flaws in our system while adding a myriad of new ones."
Kesten, however, disagreed wholeheartedly.
"I think the health care debates are greatly needed in our country right now," she said. "There are many people who are uninsured because they cannot afford health care, which is a right I believe everyone should have."
Archambault agreed with Kesten.
"I think the health care system needs a drastic overhaul and the current reforms being debated in the House and Senate represent political compromises that will lead to incremental reform at best," Archambault said.
Jumbos will remain mostly insulated from the direct effects of any health care reform in the near future. The debate, however, is far from over.
"This has all been pitched as ‘health care' debate, where health care is asserted as a right," Hawley said. "In fact, it is a debate over health insurance."
None of the changes currently proposed would alter the fundamentally expensive nature of providing health care to an entire national population, and high price tags are likely to remain an issue for some time.
"It is almost certain that we will be discussing health care again," Shusterman said, "and this time in the terms of enormous costs."
