Nancy Nielsen, president of the American Medical Association, shared "sobering statistics" Tuesday in Huntsman Hall.
In Nielson's lecture, "U.S. Health Care: Is 2009 the time for a Revolution?" she discussed the need for major health care reform in the U.S. The event was hosted by the Wharton Politics and Business Association, Wharton's newest student group.
According to Nielson, 46 million Americans are uninsured, $4.4 trillion was spent on health care in 2008 and each medical student owes an average $140,000 in debt.
After delineating the political, financial and social issues surrounding health care, Nielsen said, "It's time to see some major reform."
However, she expressed optimism about the future of health care by noting AMA's recent collaboration with the Obama administration.
Nielson's address was organized in accordance with WPBA's first annual Policy Cup, which according to WPBA's Web site, is its "token competition."
Each participating team presents policy research, a paper proposal and an oral presentation that addresses questions relating to each year's theme - this year's is health care.
Dayna Shi, Wharton junior and president of WPBA, said this particular topic "is relevant not only to Wharton, and so it was possible to get everyone in the Penn community involved."
Out of over 100 participants and 40 teams, five papers were selected as finalists. First prize went to "Combating Neglected Tropical Diseases," written by Michael Harhay, a graduate student in the Masters of Public Health program, and College freshman Samuel Lee. In addition to the $1,500 they received, WPBA will work with them next year to implement the proposal.
"I went to WPBA's first general body meeting, heard about the Policy Cup and signed up," said Lee.
Of their plans for the proposal, Lee said, "We will start out by e-mailing and getting word out ... to different think tanks and get some dialogues going."
College seniors Thomas Hou and Alan Hsu won second place, while College sophomore Adam Bloch and Wharton sophomore Doug Eckhardt came in third.
