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Hall Center to hold lecture with T.R. Reid

TR Reid will discuss health care costs in America at 7:30 p.m. in Woodruff Auditorium.

TR Reid will discuss health care costs in America at 7:30 p.m. in Woodruff Auditorium.

By Lauren Hendrick

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Journalist T.R. Reid was really looking forward to enjoying the Kansas vs. Oklahoma game this Saturday after his two-day visit to the University, but the popularity of his New York Times best selling book, “The Healing of America: A Global Quest For Better, Cheaper and Fairer Health Care,” has him flying to Boston instead.

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Graphic by Liz Schubauer

Reid will speak about health care at 7:30 tonight at Woodruff Auditorium in The Kansas Union as part of the 2009-2010 Hall Center for The Humanities lecture series. His lecture, “We’re Number 37! Why Other Countries have Better, Fairer and Cheaper Health Care than the USA,” will focus on why United States health care ranks 37th in overall system performance among other countries.

“My lecture will answer this question: All the other industrialized democracies provide high quality medical care for everybody, but spend half as much as we do on health care. How do they do that?” Reid said.

Victor Bailey, director of the Hall Center, said he began planning Reid’s visit nearly a year ago when health care was a key platform in the 2008 presidential election. He said inviting Reid to speak at the University was a priority because of the relevance of the health care debate.

“It pushes a lot of buttons with the American public,” Bailey said.

According to the 2008 U.S. Census Bureau report, more than 46 million Americans do not have health insurance.

George Dungan, Lincoln, Neb., senior, said he was interested in attending the event because health care reform was one of his big concerns.

“I think students are aware there is an issue and they definitely know it needs to be reformed, like, today,” Dungan said.

Bailey said he was intrigued by Reid’s work because he compared and contrasted health care around the world and conveyed that reform wasn’t inconceivable.

Reid’s book explores health care in other wealthy and industrialized countries, including France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and Canada. Reid said his interest in health care developed when his family lived abroad during his years as a foreign correspondent and bureau chief for the Washington Post.

“We’re a fourth-rate power in keeping people healthy,” Reid said. “That became totally clear.”

He said he remembered one instance when he had to call a doctor in Britain to care for one of his children.

“The doctor came to the house, treated our kid and left. No co-pay, no deductable, nothing,” he said. “Health care is the government’s responsibility.”

Reid said he was also impressed with the health care his family received in Japan.

“You could go to the doctor and it was cheaper than a meal from McDonald’s,” he said. “It was fabulous care.”

During his reporting, Reid teamed with PBS Frontline and made the 2008 documentary “Sick Around The World,” which focused on five of his visits in various countries to examine their health care systems. Reid has also written and hosted documentaries for National Geographic TV and A&E Network.

Reid graduated from Princeton in 1966 and served in the Navy for five years during the Vietnam War. He is the author of seven books in English and three in Japanese. He has reported from three dozen countries on five continents and is a regular commentator for National Public Radio.

Reid’s lecture will be followed by a question and answer period. The lecture is sponsored by The Hall Center for The Humanities and Kansas Public Radio.

— Edited by Alicia Banister

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