UF expert available to talk about prospects for health care reform

January 25, 2010

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Republican Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts Tuesday to replace Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate stunned Capitol Hill and left Americans wondering about the future of the health care reform bill.

R. Paul Duncan, chairman of the University of Florida’s Department of Health Services Research, Management and Policy, said he believes health care reform has turned into something political rather than a policy issue.

Duncan said the Democrats are looking for how to pass the reform bill, while the Republicans are looking for how to shoot the issue down.

“Neither side is looking carefully at the content,” Duncan said.

Duncan said the future of the health care bill is looking bleak. He said he doesn’t see health care reform happening any time soon.

“That’s unfortunate,” he said. “We are losing as a nation if we let that happen.”

Duncan said he thinks our current health care system is in trouble with more than 40 million Americans uninsured.

He said the system is flawed in three important components: cost, accessibility and quality of care.

Duncan said Tuesday’s upset could postpone health care reform for possibly a decade.

“My guess is that the Massachusetts outcome will probably kill this attempt at reform. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

Duncan is a nationally prominent health services researcher as well as an expert on health insurance and the uninsured. He has been published in prestigious journals such as Medical Care and Health Affairs. He is currently researching in areas including health services, access to health care, health insurance, Medicaid and uncompensated care.

He can be reached at 352-273-6065 or by e-mail at pduncan@phhp.ufl.edu.