BILOXI, Miss., July 19 (UPI) -- U.S. state governors and federal officials meeting Sunday in Mississippi discussed healthcare reform, but didn't agree on many solutions, observers said.
Despite broad agreement that the healthcare system is broken as the U.S. Congress debates reform measures in Washington, attendees at the National Governors Association in Biloxi didn't find common ground on what to do about fixing it, The (Mobile, Ala.) Press-Register reported.
The governors spent much of the day discussing extending health coverage to the uninsured, lowering costs and debating the role of the federal government after asking officials from Massachusetts, Vermont and the federal government to offer their perspectives, the newspaper said.
"We have to get away from the old concept of being in the coronary care unit, with your heart attack, weighing 300 pounds, cholesterol is 300, and you're looking up from that bed and saying, 'Bail me out, doc,'" Dr. Tom Fenter, corporate medical adviser for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi, told the governors,
The Press-Register said U.S. Department of Health and Human Services official Cindy Mann asserted that while more evidence-based treatments are needed, efforts to accomplish that by altering financial incentives for physicians are criticized as "rationing."
