University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health student Siavash Sarlati traveled to Washington D.C. Thursday to participate in President Barack Obama’s national forum on health care.
The forum brought together lawmakers, doctors, business leaders and average citizens to discuss ways to improve the American heath care system by lowering costs and increasing heath care coverage for all Americans, according to a White House statement.
“Let me be clear: The same soaring costs that are straining families’ budgets are sinking our businesses and eating up our government budgets too,” Obama said in a press conference. “Health care reform is no longer just a moral imperative, it’s a fiscal imperative — we have to address the crushing costs of heath care this year in this administration.”
Sarlati was chosen to participate in the forum after he held a health care community discussion in Milwaukee in late December, solicited by the Obama transition Health Care Team throughout America, according to White House spokesperson Amy Brundage.
According to Sarlati, 16 people attended his discussion in December, including physicians, former classmates and high school students.
“[Community discussion leaders] then submitted a report back to the transition about what they heard from their friends and neighbors,” Brundage said. “Seven people were chosen to attend [the forum] based on their feedback.”
Of the seven discussion leaders invited to attend the forum, Sarlati was the only student.
Thursday, Sarlati listened to the president’s opening remarks before participating in a session on health care transparency with lawmakers and members of third-party organizations.
“I was surprised by how cooperative everyone was,” Sarlati said. “There were lots of good ideas coming from both sides of the table. I think there was an effort to make sure a lot of points of view were there.”
After his discussion session, Sarlati took part in a “town hall type discussion” with the president and forum members where the president answered questions on health care.
Follwing the discussion, Sarlati was given the opportunity to speak with Obama directly.
“I reminded him that I was a medical student and I had six figures of debt that might get in the way of my practicing and he said, ‘That’s a problem we’ll have to fix,'” Sarlati said.
For the UW medical school, Sarlati’s journey was exciting, representing the first step in health care reform, according to Associate Dean of Students Patrick McBride.
“We couldn’t be more excited that one of our students was chosen to represent medical students nationwide — he’s really representing future physicians,” McBride said. “I think the job he did with [his community health care discussion] made him a very valuable part of this discussion.”
Despite the president’s optimism on health care reform, Republicans were not so optimistic.
“In Wisconsin where access to health care is high, we need to focus on controlling costs,” said Kirsten Kukowski, spokesperson for the Republican Party of Wisconsin. “It is our hope Obama’s health care forum is focused on controlling costs without turning health care over to the government.”
