By Ehlayna Napolitano (Assistant News Editor)
A Democrat against healthcare policies is a bit like a needle in a haystack.
David Goldhill, the CEO of the Game Show Network, came to Hofstra on April 17 to talk to students about his critique of the American healthcare system and his ideas for its improvement. He also promoted his new book on the subject, entitled Catastrophic Care: How American Healthcare Killed My Father and How We Can Fix It. Goldhill feels that his experience as a businessman, rather than a healthcare professional, allows him to more accurately assess the state of the system in the United States.
As someone who identifies as Democrat, Goldhill set forth his own idea for a solution to the failings of a system he sees as a failing enterprise which does not function efficiently.
“For me, the big problem with healthcare is how do you change the way people think on a subject that seems to be such a…distant, complex,unapproachable subject,” Goldhill said.
His healthcare solution, which is essentially to split public and private control of the industry, would increase the efficiency and productiveness of the system overall. Goldhill created this system after the death of his father, which occurred after he obtained an infection after a routine hospitalization. This avoidable inefficiency, said Goldhill during his lecture, is theessence of failing American healthcare that he seeks to avoid.
Students felt that the lecture was informative and enlightening as to the problems and costs that our generation will be facing.
Kevin Tamerler, a junior geography, economics and global studies triple major, felt that the lecture touched upon major issues in this country without sounding complicated or getting bogged down with jargon.
“I’m struck by the fact that every CEO I’ve ever met struck me more as a politician than they did as a businessman,” Tamerler said. “He spoke very well and you could easily see him running for Congress.”
The lecture also received high praise from faculty members. Associate Professor of Political ScienceRichard Himelfarb, one of the people instrumental in bringing Goldhill to campus, felt that the talk provided students with information that was usually inaccessible in a light and understandable way.
“I really wanted to bring someone with new ideas, with different ideas to Hofstra and I think he achieved that,” Himelfarb said. “I thought the students were incredibly well-informed and were open to what he was saying. I think that healthcare is a bit abstract for students because most don’t pay for it themselves…we have some good reason to get a handle on it sooner rather than later.”
Goldhill noted that although he gives relatively few talks at universities on a yearly basis, the lecture setting is one of his favorite ways to promote his ideas.
“It’s more fun when you’re not with a group of healthcare professionals, because the questions tend to be more imaginative,” Goldhill said. “That’s why talking to people who in some ways are generalists, and not experts, is more fun.”
