Turbulence in the American Health Care System: Presented to the 5th Biennial Conference of the Northeast Canadian/American Health Council, Halifax, Nova Scotia
One of C. Everett Koop's responsibilities as U.S. Surgeon General was to represent the United States at international public health conferences, such as the conferences of the Northeast Canadian/American Health Council. In his speech to the council Koop reviewed the successes of the American health care system, measured by the steady rise in life expectancy since 1950, but also criticized that despite a rapid increase in health care costs no cures had been developed for such serious and common medical conditions as alcoholism, depression, sexually transmitted diseases, obesity, and child abuse, in his understanding as much a matter of health as of law. This was also one of the first speeches in which Koop mentioned AIDS, an issue so controversial among officials in the Reagan administration that Koop had been asked not to address it by his superior, Assistant Secretary for Health Edward Brandt.
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