Word: reformer
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...came as a shock last week when the American College of Physicians, the U.S.'s second largest medical society, called for comprehensive health-care reform that would include some form of national financing. The announcement, made in Chicago at the A.C.P.'s annual meeting, marks the first time that a doctors' group has backed an overhaul of American medical care. And it puts the 68,000-member group at direct odds with the powerful 300,000-member American Medical Association, which has been opposing sweeping change for at least 30 years. Says Dr. John Ball, the A.C.P.'s executive vice...
Among the solutions offered by the A.M.A.: force more employers to provide health insurance, and expand Medicaid coverage for the poor. But the A.C.P. | labels such changes "tinkering," not reform -- helpful in the short run but inadequate to address the fundamental flaws in the system. In the 21-page position paper it issued last week, the group cites several such flaws, including wasteful administrative overhead that has burgeoned to 22% of medical expenses, and enormous malpractice awards that force doctors to buy expensive insurance and pass the cost on to patients. But the biggest problems, according to the A.C.P...
...does not say so explicitly, the Canadian health-care system, based on principles of accessibility, universality and public funding, is a model. The reason Canada was not mentioned, according to one official: its system is considered by some to be "socialized medicine," a buzz word that could torpedo the reform effort. Besides, says Ball, the Canadian model could not be wholly transplanted into the U.S. because, among other reasons, Canadians trust their government more than Americans...
...embraced its leading actor, his friend Mikhail Ulyanov. One version has Gorbachev saying, "That is me. That is me." Playwright Mikhail Shatrov, 58, says that the actual words were more restrained but that Gorbachev openly drew parallels between Lenin's reluctant peace with imperial Germany and his own reform and retrenchment. Thus the staging of Shatrov's text became a political as well as an artistic event, a landmark of changing times. And of countless cultural exchanges between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. in recent years, none has had greater symbolic significance than the play's current run in Chicago...
...both Democrats and Republicans are rushing to align themselves with reform proposals. But the scramble is unlikely to translate into a real overhaul. While both parties are sanctimoniously mouthing the language of reform, their real objective is to undercut their opponent's fund-raising advantages while protecting their own. Since Republicans raise more money from private contributors, they resist spending limits on congressional campaigns. Because Democrats get more cash from political-action committees, they oppose G.O.P. efforts to abolish PACs...