An Invigorated Second Term

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/08/opinion/an-invigorated-second-term-for-president-obama.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Nov 8, 2012 at 10:10 AM
Subject: re: An Invigorated Second Term
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

   Four years ago, to his enduring credit, president Obama proposed reinventing the American healthcare system. That discussion was swiftly narrowed to a discussion of healthcare coverage. Although coverage is a necessary component, it cannot be the whole system.  Now in his second term, it is for president Obama to dive back into the fray. Americans need to know not only who pays the doctors, but how much treatment we want. Ongoing advances in medicine and medical devices have allowed us to prolong the dying process more often than they have allowed us to restore quality of life and autonomy. The current fee-for-service paradigm means that most Americans will die with the maximum number of tubes stuck into our bodies. Yet we haven't even begun the discussion of whether this  vast outlay of money is aligned with our values.

    The rancor and distraction of the political campaign are behind us. As we begin president Obama's second term America has to decide what our values are, and where we will spend our wealth.

Barry Haskell Levine