Former Surgeon General addresses current policies

Marissa Graziadio / Associate News Editor

Rutgers Daily Targum, Issue date: 3/4/08

Former Surgeon General of the Public Health Service Dr. M. Joycelyn Elders began her lecture last night with a rallying cry against the nation's poor system of health care.

Elders was appointed surgeon general in 1993 by former President Bill Clinton and became the first black woman to fill the position, although she had to resign after 15 months on the job amid controversy surrounding her advocacy of sexual health education in schools.

A small crowd gathered for the event, "The Politics of Health Care," which took place in Trayes Hall of the Douglass Campus Center.

"We do not have a health care system in the United States. We have a very expensive sick care system," Elders said. "The United States is the only industrialized country that does not offer universal access to health care. Our health care system, as it is, is not coherent, comprehensive or cost-effective."

Elders said that 47 million people in the United States are without health insurance, and it costs $100 billion to pay for them. A person without it who waits until they get sick to seek medical treatment is 25 percent more likely to die, she said.

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