Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — A former Robert Wood Johnson Foundation president will discuss the state of America's health care system during the final Seminars at Steamboat presentation of the season.

Steve Schroeder, now a professor in the University of California's Department of Medicine, will talk about key issues regarding health care, including how much money the U.S. government spends on health care every year, insurance and why the U.S. ranks so low in providing adequate health care to its residents. The presentation is at 5 p.m. in the Strings in the Mountains Music Festival Tent.

"We are the only developed nation that does not guarantee access to basic health care for all its citizens," he said.

Schroeder led the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation's largest foundation devoted exclusively to health and health care issues, for 12 years. During his time there, the foundation granted about $4 billion to improve the nation's health care system.

During the presentation, Schroeder also will address how "the politics of health contrived to give us the system we have today."

"Our vastly higher rates of health care spending result from a complex mix of demand and supply factors that have resisted all previous attempts at medical cost containment," he said.

Jane Stein, a spokeswoman for the Seminars series, said the timely topic was appropriate to conclude the series' dialogues on public policy.

"Other discussions focused on foreign public policy. This is our No. 1 domestic public policy issue," she said Tuesday. "It is a topic that seems to concern everyone, including people living in Steamboat Springs."

Schroeder graduated from Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. He has taught at Harvard University and George Washington Medical Center. He leads the University of California's Smoking Cessation Leadership Center, which is designed to increase the cessation rate among smokers. He also is the chairman of the International Advisory Committee of the Ben Gurion School of Medicine in Israel and is on the editorial board of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Thursday's discussion is free and open to the public.

Stein said she expects a large crowd as the 2007 series has brought in more people than any other series.

"It has been an excellent season," she said. "The reputation of the Seminars continues to grow with each year."