by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
The Rotary Club of Jacksonville established an annual tradition years ago the first time a representative from the American Medical Association’s top leadership was invited to Jacksonville to speak to club members and their guests. That tradition continued Monday when Dr. James Rohack, president-elect of the AMA was the keynote speaker at the club’s weekly meeting.
Dr. Yank Coble, director and distinguished professor at the University of North Florida Center for Global Health and Medical Diplomacy and himself a former AMA president, said the tradition has continued because, “It gives our club the opportunity to get firsthand information and it reminds us of other things we have like the Rotary International Polio Campaign.”
Rohack began his remarks by citing some statistics that defined the current state of health care in America.
“There are 47 million people who don’t have health insurance, including 120,000 here in Jacksonville,” he said. “They have access to health care, but it’s at a very expensive place, the emergency room.”
Rohack also pointed out that 80 percent of uninsured Americans are living in an employed household, a situation created by the current state of benefits available to most people through their place of work. Many benefit plans cover only the employee or are cost-prohibitive when it comes to insuring the entire family.
“All Americans must have health insurance,” said Rohack. “Ideally, individually purchased health insurance because that would be portable (from one job to another).”
The way to have a sustainable health care system for Americans will be to create a culture of prevention, particularly among those life choices the AMA has identified most costly and controllable.
“We have to create mechanisms to keep ourselves healthy. Four behaviors — tobacco, the risky use of alcohol, improper nutrition and lack of physical activity — are the factors that lead to most health issues,” said Rohack. “Trauma is the third-most expensive health care cost in America and it’s also preventable by not drinking and driving.”
Another challenge facing health care in America in the future will be a lack of primary care physicians and those who specialize in care of older people. Medical students are choosing their eventual careers for mostly economic reasons.
There’s not a lot of excitement about primary care or geriatrics among medical students, said Rohack.
“You get out of school $140,000 in debt and students are choosing specialties based on that amount of debt. You don’t have to be an MBA to figure that out,” he said.
Also speaking at the meeting was Leslie Greer, development director for the MaliVai Washington Kids Foundation. The Rotary Club of Jacksonville made a donation to the nonprofit and Greer was there to thank club members and invite them to tour the foundation’s tennis and educational facility.
“MaliVai Washington, a Wimbledon finalist, started the foundation 13 years ago and started with only grant making,” she said. “Then the program grew into tennis lessons and today the foundation also offers after school programs and educational support. We have partnered with the City to offer life lessons to the kids. There are middle school students involved with the programs who are learning how to write a resume and interview for a job. Tennis has become a small component of what we do.
“Our mission now is to provide children with a means to an education. The keys to their success in life are programs the Rotary Club helps fund.”
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