Hospital Association Chief addresses Health Care Reform

As long as politics continues to overshadow sound policy, it will be difficult to pass meaningful health care reform in the United States. That’s what Capital Rotarians heard from their Aug. 23 guest speaker – Thornton Kirby.

Kirby (right), shown with club member and human resources professional Trey Boone, is a health care attorney and former hospital executive. Noting that health care is one-sixth of the nation’s economy, Kirby said reform is also complicated by the public’s “three wishes” – (1) to have the world’s best health care, (2) to have someone else pay for it and (3) to not be responsible for changing their personal behavior to ensure better health.

Kirby said a more “intelligent design” for reform would focus on affordability for employers, employees and government; on the clinical effectiveness of drugs instead of their marketability; and on promoting wellness behaviors in place of “sick care” emphasis. Kirby is president and CEO of the South Carolina Hospital Association, a private, not-for-profit organization created in 1921 to be a collective voice for the state’s hospital community.