Has this doctor-governor found the key to health reform?. Interview by Berkeley Rice.
Under the leadership of internist Howard Dean, the nation's only physician-governor, Vermont is adopting a comprehensive health-care plan that will revolutionize the way the state's doctors practice medicine. As Vermont goes, so may the nation, for Dean is one of the key advisers to the Clinton administration on health-care reform. But if the Vermont plan serves as a model for the rest of the country, many doctors may find it a better pill to swallow. Among other things, it could mean that nearly all the state's physicians will, in effect, participate in a state-run HMO and be subject to global fees and budgets that will also cover hospitals (see opposite page). While the plan's specific provisions are still being debated, Dean's views have spread to other states and to the Clinton administration through his role as co-chairman of the National Governor's Association task force on health care. In a recent interview with Senior Associate Editor Berkeley Rice in the governor's office in Montpelier, Dean discussed Vermont's new health plan, its importance as a model for other states, and his unique perspective as physician-governor.
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