John C. Lechleiter, Ph.D.
Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer
Eli Lilly and Company

A Second Opinion: Innovation and
The Health Care Reform Diagnosis

My topic this afternoon is health care reform—which has been a perennial, high-stakes challenge for U.S. policymakers and is now once again a top priority here in Washington both for the U.S. Congress and for the Obama Administration.

To those of us outside the Beltway, it sometimes appears that when a set of issues goes to the top of the heap in Washington—the way health care reform is doing right now — something strange happens. The things that are said in public about these issues seem to get less and less interesting. Conventional wisdom tends to be echoed disagreements are downplayed, and the action generally moves behind the scenes. And that’s where we are at this moment.

Health care, as we all know, is a vitally important topic. And any reform measures will touch each of us and our families. So now of all times, before it’s too late, I believe that we have a duty to move beyond platitudes. We need to discuss and debate the enormous stakes involved—in getting reform right.

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