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<table class="contentpaneopen"><tbody><tr><td class="createdate" valign="top" width="100%"> Saturday, February 17, 2007 </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="contentheading" width="100%"> Leavitt focusing on health care and emergency preparedness </td> <td class="buttonheading" align="right" width="100%">
</td> </tr> </tbody></table> <hr style="padding-bottom: 10px;" noshade="noshade" size="1"> <table class="contentpaneopen"><tbody><tr> <td class="byline" colspan="2" align="left" valign="top" width="70%"> LORETTA PARK AND JEFF DEMOSS - STANDARD-EXAMINER Staff </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" valign="top"> Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt has 711 days left in office.
And when he walks out of his Washington office for the final time, he hopes every American will have affordable health insurance and every state will be ready to handle a disaster like a pandemic flu.
Leavitt spoke to the Utah House and Senate on Friday.
"I'm concerned about the exploding cost of health care," Leavitt told the House.
When he became governor of Utah, health care was 6 percent of the state's total budget.
It's now at 20 percent, which is the case with almost every state, he said.
"It squeezes out education and puts pressure on highways," he said.
Leavitt told the Senate that individual states should take the lead in developing a system that allows affordable health care for all Americans, rather than having a centralized federal system.
Universal health care offered through the federal government would mean "fewer choices, longer waits, less happy patients and higher taxes," he said while addressing the Senate.
He said health care now accounts for 16 percent of the United States gross domestic product, up from 4 percent when he was born in 1951.
"This won't perpetually happen because we will ultimately be eliminated from the playing field economically if that continues," he said.
Unlike banking and most other industries, there is no common system for health care establishing the standards and comparative benchmarks that create healthy competition, he said, adding that Utah can serve as a model for other states.
"Given the assets in this state, there's no place on the planet better able to create a system of competition based on value," he said. "It's about finding competition, which is the answer to ultimately driving costs down."
The country does not have a health care system, but a sector, Leavitt said, and he is looking at ways to convert the sector into a system.
"This is an issue we truly have to deal with as a nation," Leavitt said.
But what the nation cannot do is bring all the resources to a community or state that has not prepared for a disaster, like the pandemic flu.
Any state or community that fails to prepare for a pandemic flu, which will happen, Leavitt said, will suffer serious consequences.
"We can't meet the needs of every community because when it happens it will happen in every area," Leavitt said.
</td></tr></tbody></table>
http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/210691/4/
</td> </tr> </tbody></table> <hr style="padding-bottom: 10px;" noshade="noshade" size="1"> <table class="contentpaneopen"><tbody><tr> <td class="byline" colspan="2" align="left" valign="top" width="70%"> LORETTA PARK AND JEFF DEMOSS - STANDARD-EXAMINER Staff </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" valign="top"> Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt has 711 days left in office.
And when he walks out of his Washington office for the final time, he hopes every American will have affordable health insurance and every state will be ready to handle a disaster like a pandemic flu.
Leavitt spoke to the Utah House and Senate on Friday.
"I'm concerned about the exploding cost of health care," Leavitt told the House.
When he became governor of Utah, health care was 6 percent of the state's total budget.
It's now at 20 percent, which is the case with almost every state, he said.
"It squeezes out education and puts pressure on highways," he said.
Leavitt told the Senate that individual states should take the lead in developing a system that allows affordable health care for all Americans, rather than having a centralized federal system.
Universal health care offered through the federal government would mean "fewer choices, longer waits, less happy patients and higher taxes," he said while addressing the Senate.
He said health care now accounts for 16 percent of the United States gross domestic product, up from 4 percent when he was born in 1951.
"This won't perpetually happen because we will ultimately be eliminated from the playing field economically if that continues," he said.
Unlike banking and most other industries, there is no common system for health care establishing the standards and comparative benchmarks that create healthy competition, he said, adding that Utah can serve as a model for other states.
"Given the assets in this state, there's no place on the planet better able to create a system of competition based on value," he said. "It's about finding competition, which is the answer to ultimately driving costs down."
The country does not have a health care system, but a sector, Leavitt said, and he is looking at ways to convert the sector into a system.
"This is an issue we truly have to deal with as a nation," Leavitt said.
But what the nation cannot do is bring all the resources to a community or state that has not prepared for a disaster, like the pandemic flu.
Any state or community that fails to prepare for a pandemic flu, which will happen, Leavitt said, will suffer serious consequences.
"We can't meet the needs of every community because when it happens it will happen in every area," Leavitt said.
</td></tr></tbody></table>
http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/210691/4/