Commentaries Examine Prospects for Health Care Reform

• "Achieving Large System Change in Health Care," Journal of the American Medical Association: In the commentary, physician John Oldham, chair of Quest4Quality, discusses the need for large-scale change in the nation's health care system. He writes that health reform efforts need to reject the status quo, and that leaders need to maintain and express optimism about change and take calculated risks. In addition, all individuals and organizations must work as a team for large-scale health reform efforts to be successful, he writes (Oldham, JAMA, 3/4).
  
  
• "Reforming U.S. Health Care: Key Considerations for the New Administration," JAMA: In the commentary, Victor Fuchs of the National Bureau of Economic Research writes that the election of President Obama "has set in motion high expectations that he will undertake systematic reform of the U.S. health care system in his first term." Fuchs continues that health care reform "must address three persistent problems: the uninsured; the high and rapidly increasing cost of care; and significant lapses in quality." He examines "several essential points [that] must be kept in mind" as lawmakers develop an overhaul plan, including the time it will take to craft a viable proposal, as well as the need for reform efforts to contain costs and improve quality (Fuchs, JAMA, 3/4).