Frans van Houten Quotes

I am not so naive to think that I can make every problem in the health service go away. No minister can. And never will be able to.

The biggest public health challenge is rebuilding health systems. In other words, if you look at cholera or maternal mortality or tuberculosis in Haiti, they're major problems in Haiti, but the biggest problem is rebuilding systems.

We do not have a functioning market in the true sense of the word in health care. That's a layer of transparency that's sorely needed in America.

I am not saying do not give people equal health services but do not pretend that giving more money for diabetes or chronic diseases means you are going to deal with the origins of health inequalities.

Having come from the U.S. and observed the way the health care system works there, we definitely felt that we could do something in India.

The chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80% of the total health care bill out there. There is going to have to be a very difficult democratic conversation that takes place. The decision is not whether or not we will ration care. The decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open.

Health care is one-sixth of our economy. If the government can control that, they can control just about everything. We need to understand what is going on, because there are much more economic models that can be used to give us good health care than what we have now.

This double burden of disease is rapidly putting a serious brake on the development efforts of many countries.

It is a lot easier to find gaps in the health care system than to find ways to fill them.

Health is the single most difficult public policy that a Governor has to deal with.

Medical costs are of concern, both in developing and developed countries.

While eliminating smallpox and curtailing cholera added decades of life to vast populations, cures for the chronic diseases of old age cannot have the same effect on life expectancy. A cure for cancer would be miraculous and welcome, but it would lead to only a three-year increase in life expectancy at birth.

I want us to be judged by the impact we have on the health of the people of Africa and the health of women. Improvements in the health of the people of Africa and the health of women are key indicators of the performance of WHO. This is a health organization for the whole world... But we must focus our attention on the people in greatest need.

This is our bottom line: The ways we give should and will evolve to enable us to achieve greater impact to improve the health and health care of all Americans.

If I could make any change in the health system, it would be education, education, education.

Many sections of our country and many groups of our citizens suffer from diseases the eradication of which are mere matters of administration and moderate expenditure. Public health service should be as fully organized and as universally incorporated into our governmental system as is public education. The returns are a thousand fold in economic benefits, and infinitely more in reduction of suffering and promotion of human happiness.

Now, decisions with a major impact on health care are made in conjunction with budgetary decisions. Before we debated health policy. Now we debate fiscal policy.

We ration health care now. We just don’t ration very rationally.

I can attest to the very real potential for unnecessary pain, suffering, and death when the work of public-health officials is curtailed.

I think it's important, especially in health care, to take this step by step, whether it's the replacement of the Affordable Care Act, how we make Medicaid work better, how we save Medicare for the long term.

In poor countries, we still need better ways to measure the effectiveness of the many government workers providing health services. They are the crucial link bringing tools such as vaccines and education to the people who need them most. How well trained are they? Are they showing up to work?

You want to talk about something that truly changes the game in this country, Medicaid is one of the most failed forms of health care.

I don't ever approach anything from the issue first, so I can't tell you that I've thought about tackling universal health care. I'd have to have some great story I'd want to tell, and then universal health care would become part of the way to tell that story.

We must find a way to cover those who are no longer healthy but need care.

In an aging world with more chronic disease, health and healthcare are enormous opportunities that we want to focus on.