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For the past seven years, the Fund has hosted an annual international symposium in health care policy on a topic of common concern to the U.S. and other industrialized nations. This year's symposium, held in Washington, D.C., in October 2004, brought together leading policy thinkers around the theme of primary health care innovation and reform. Participants included health ministers, or their designates, from Australia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the U.S., as well as senior government officials and leading researchers from each country. In addition, experts from Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden shared experiences on innovations in their countries.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson co-hosted the opening dinner and emphasized the value of forums, such as the international symposium, for cross-national learning. In sharing his vision for transforming the U.S. health care system, the Secretary talked about the need to harness the potential of information technology, shift the focus from curative medicine to prevention, and give consumers more choice as a key to better quality and lower costs. Looking beyond America's borders, he was passionate in his call for using health care as a bridge to peace between countries.
Drawing on many of the themes introduced by Secretary Thompson, Franz Knieps, director-general for health care provision and long-term care insurance for the German Ministry of Health and Social Security, presented an ambitious agenda for reforming his nation's health care system to improve quality, efficiency, and choice while ensuring its sustainability. Among the innovations he described were Germany's newly established Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care, which develops evidence-based guidelines and assesses the cost-effectiveness of new pharmaceuticals; financial incentives for patients to use primary care doctors as their point of entry into the system; and an electronic health card. A further highlight of the meeting was the third John M. Eisenberg, M.D., International Lecture, delivered by Mark McClellan, M.D., administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
C-SPAN and the Kaiser Network broadcast live the release of the results of the Fund's 2004 International Health Policy Survey and the Ministers' Policy Roundtable. Fund vice presidents Cathy Schoen and Robin Osborn presented the 2004 survey findings, which were simultaneously published by Health Affairs as a "Web Exclusive." (1) The survey elicited the views of 1,400 adults in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the U.S., as well as an expanded U.K. sample of 3,000 adults (funded by The Health Foundation), on their experiences with primary and preventive care. |
