Members in Attendance (9): Dick Drumm, Jim Leyhane, Roberto Martinez, Pat Bailey, Phil Kellerman, Debbie Rodriguez, Charlie Foote, Peter Brown and Debbie Brown.

By Zoom (0): 

Guests (1): Dr. Jim Morley.

President-Elect Peter Brown called the meeting to order.

MEETING NOTES

Gift Of Life 25th Annual Golf Tournament: Thursday September 14, 2023.  The brochure and the link to register is on the website.

Movies in the park:  There are still volunteer spaces available for The Rise of Boots: The Last Wish. There can be more than two people per event for any of the other movies. Please contact Pat Bailey if you are able to participate.

Membership: Last week’s speaker expressed an interest. Phil Kellerman will follow-up with her.

Board Meeting: The next Board meeting will be held on July 5th at 6:30 pm at Peter Brown’s home.

Presidential Changeover: Will be held on July 6th at Peter and Debbie Brown’s home. The pool is open! If you have not already done so, please let Peter or Debbie know that you will attend. If you are attending, please bring an appetizer.

Summer Events: If you have not already done so, please call or e-mail the hosts listed on the calander page of the website and let them know that you will be attending their event. Jim and Roberto are asking for $20 for one person or $25 for two or more people for the pool party at Jim Leyhane’s home on July 20th and please bring an appetizer. Please let Phil Kellerman know if you will be attending the S&S Brewery event on Friday, July 14 at 6pm. Also, wish Phil a happy birthday on July 7th.

Roberto Martinez introduced Dr. John Morley who he had met while working at the NYS Department of Health. Dr. Morley then worked at several hospitals in New York City before he became Chief Medical Director for the Department of Corrections. He has now come back to the Department of Health. He is an anesthesiologist and has worked in intensive care units.

Per Dr. Morley, “things are always changing” and that applies to health care. One hundred years ago, 90% of physicians had no college education and most babies were born at home. Today, US expenditures on health care are two and a half times the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Developemnt’s average. More than $10,000 is spent per person per year, far exceeding the costs of other countries such as Norway and Switzerland. In addition to public funding, the US spends a large amount of private funds on health care.

Dr. Morley is not so sure that capitalism works in the health care system. People make choices for their health care, but many times someone else pays for some or all of it. The younger generation with health care is paying for much of the older generation’s health care costs. New technology costs more. For example, the machine for cancer treatments using proton beam radiation therapy using electrons costs between two and five million dollars, whereas the new technology using protons costs 125 to 150 million dollars. This requires investors to purchase the machine. These investors are looking for profits thus driving the usage of the new technology which had not been proven to be better than the existing technology.

One third of the cost of medical care goes to treatments that do not add any value for the patient. For example, per Medicaid data, stents for hearts are over utilized. Stents are needed during a heart attack or to reduce the need for medication. They do not prevent heart attacks. Much pre-op testing is not needed. To find out what you can do about unnecessary medical services, go to http://www.choosingwisely.org and then have a conversation with your medical provider.