Opinion By Mitch Daniels

Dear Colleagues:

As we all know, Congress is considering legislation that promises to alter dramatically the financing and delivery of health care in the United States.  Proposed legislation is likely to produce the greatest changes in American health care since the enactment of Medicare in 1965.  We should remember that Medicare not only improved access to health care for Americans over the age of 65, but it changed every aspect of health care in America from the regulation of hospitals to the funding and organization of  postgraduate medical education.  There is little doubt that new federal legislation will have a similarly wide-ranging impact on clinical care delivery, biomedical research, and education.