WATERLOO -- A member of the American Medical Association board of trustees gave his prescription for what he says is an ailing health care system that leaves millions of American uninsured.

Dr. William Dolan of the AMA spoke at Allen College Friday morning to share his concerns -- and proposed solutions -- with students and medical professionals.

Dolan was the keynote speaker at the 20th annual Jauch Memorial Educational Symposium.

The symposium was originally scheduled for June but was postponed because of flooding.

Dolan said the AMA's top priority is to enact a plan to insure the estimated 47 million Americans without health insurance.

Fewer employers offer health insurance for their workers, and premiums on employer-paid plans have gone up 87 percent since 2000, Dolan said.

"We believe what is going to get us out of this problem - is to change the tax code," he said.

The AMA proposes giving people tax breaks for health insurance and subsidizing health insurance costs for people making up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level.

American spending on health care has increased from $390 billion in the 1980s to $2.2 trillion today, Dolan said.

"This is an unsustainable business model that can't keep up," Dolan said.

Americans and the health care industry absorbs $50 billion in expenses from uninsured people per year, he added.

That cost is passed on by health care providers to patients and by insurance companies to their customers.

"The can cannot be kicked down the road anymore," Dolan said. "We've got to cover them."

Changing the tax code is more likely to get legislative congressional support compared to failed nationalized health care plans such as the ones proposed by presidents Harry Truman and Bill Clinton, he said.

A bill in the U.S. Senate sponsored by Ron Widen, D-Ore., is similar to the AMA proposal, Dolan said, adding that it appears to have bipartisan support in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Under the AMA proposal, people who make more than 500 percent of the federal poverty line would be penalized for not carrying health insurance.

Dolan added Medicaid and Medicare are overburdened and, given the current trend, Medicare could be broke by 2019.

Dolan's warning about Medicare echoed the theme for this year's symposium -- dealing with the aging baby boom population's health care needs.

2008 marked the first year in which members of the baby boom generation would be eligible for Medicare, said John Sutherland, executive director emeritus of the Northeast Iowa Medical Education Foundation.

"This is an issue we're just beginning to deal with," he said.

Contact John Molseed

at (319) 291-1418 or

john.molseed@wcfcourier.com.