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July 06, 1990 - Image 75

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 1990-07-06

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

LPEOPLE

D O C TOR. IN THE HOUSE?

SUSAN SALTER

Special to The Jewish News

ike most people, Dr.
Susan Adelman
wants good health
care and adequate
health insurance for
as many Americans as possi-
ble. Unlike most people,
Adelman is in a position to do
something about it.
This past May 5, Dr.
Adelman was installed as
president of the Michigan
State Medical Society
(MSMS). This means the
48-year-old pediatric surgeon,
the society's first female
president, will represent
Michigan's 11,000 physicians
before the state legislature.
She will stand in the doctors'
corner in negotiations with
insurance companies. And
she will be on hand to address
the public on health issues.
That's when Adelman isn't
busy with her staff
assignments at Children's,
Oakwood and Providence
hospitals, with her private
practice in Detroit and Dear-
born, with her duties as assis-
tant professor at Wayne State
University, or with her editor-
ship of the Detroit Medical
News.
Adelman's ascension to the
top of the MSMS is actually
the second stage of a three-
year commitment to the

Photo by Glen n Triest

L

Dr. Susan Adelman, the first female
president of the Michigan State Medical
Society, represents thousands of
physicians before the state legislature.

organization's leadership. A
former committee chairman,
Adelman served last year as
president-elect and, following
her term as president, she
will become immediate past-
president in 1991. These days
her schedule is full of speak-
ing engagements, con-
ferences, and other duties, but
Adelman has already
established her priorities.
Chief among them is ad-
dressing a virtual "crisis of in-
surance" rampant in this
country. "The belief now is
that medical care should be
paid for by insurance and/or
the government," Adelman
says. "Given that medicine is
increasingly expensive, it's

difficult for people to pay on
their own."
The inconsistency of in-
surance policies poses a pro-
blem. "When people switch
jobs they might lose continua-
tion of care and lose benefits
with their new program,"
Adelman says. "Small
employers, with their smaller
profits, may rightly or wrong-
ly feel they might not have
the means to provide coverage
like the larger companies.
Large employers, trying to
compete with a world market,
find health-care costs very ex-
pensive, something that
would raise overhead, lose
profit margin."
Today, Adelman says,

there's a "widespread belief
that the government can't af-
ford to cover everyone's health
care with the cost of the na-
tional debt as high as it is. So
you have small employers
who balk at costs; you have
the self-employed and the
unemployed who're not poor
enough for Medicaid." These
people, who have fallen into
the cracks of assistance, can
be among the estimated 31-33
million Americans who are
not health-insured.
Include within those
millions a more unlikely
group. As Adelman says, "We
have fair evidence that a big
segment of the population
chooses not to pay for in-

surance. Younger and
healthier people try to 'play
the lottery' with insurance.
But it's unfair to indict the
health-care system on that
basis."
Adelman and her peers
have been working on the
question: What is the ap-
propriate response? "Should
we have targeted solutions for
each identifiable segment of
the population not covered, or
throw out the whole system
and start over?" Adelman
says.
The American Medical
Association offers a response,
in the form of a 16-point pro-
posal to improve access to
care that systematically
covers each segment and
what can be done. Adelman
refers to such ideas as ex-
panded Medicaid and a sub-
sidy for small employers, ad-
ding that there are high-risk
pools for those difficult to
insure.
She thinks this proposal
might eliminate some in-
surance loopholes. And the
ideas appear to be catching
on. Once made public, the in-
surance portions of the AMA
proposal were mirrored by ad-
vocates like the Health In-
surance Association of
America.
As far as lawmakers are
concerned, "Congress has
health care on the front
burner," Adelman says. "But

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

75

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