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Health Care reform is a leading issue in the global community. In human rights
circles, the right to adequate health care for all people is an immediate
concern, and the best method for providing that health care is a point
of great political conflict. This is a situation that Maren Fustgaard,
currently an employee of Medica health plan, has worked with since her
time at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.
“I was attracted to health care because it’s a public policy issue that has
very personal implications. I had done some work during my undergraduate studies
at California State, Long Beach that compared the health care systems of different
countries. After college, I knew I wanted to work with policy issues and enrolled
in the Humphrey Institute. There, I was able to study the public health and
the public policy side of health care. It was a way to bridge my studies into
a human rights field: a way to view health care as a human right,�? said Fustgaard
in a recent interview.
During her time at the Humphrey Institute, Fustgaard was looking for the opportunity
to study health care issues outside of the United States. She was especially
interested in women’s health care issues after taking several courses at Humphrey
that exposed her to the discrepancy between the availability of heath care
for men and women.
Fustgaard learned of the Commonwealth Medical Association in London, England
and of the Upper Midwest Fellowship Program through a professor at the Humphrey
Institute. She was granted a 1996 Human Rights Fellowship and worked as an
intern for six weeks at Commonwealth Medical Association: “It’s an organization
based in London that works as a resource for medical associations within nations
of the Commonwealth. That was an education for me, because I never thought
about the different African countries and island nations that were at one time
a part of the British Commonwealth.�?
Her duties at the Association included independent research, coordinating
events and benefits, and attending conferences, such as a women’s round table
on adolescent health and HIV issues. The experience gave Fustgaard a new perspective
on the difference between health care systems in the U.S. and abroad: “I was
always drawing comparisons between the structure of health care in Europe,
the American system, and the plight of these developing nations where there
was no insurance at all. There are three paradigms: charity-type system in
these poor nations, the U.K.’s socialized, government-run system, and the U.S.
private payer system. It was a great opportunity to see the pros and cons of
each.�?
After returning from her fellowship and graduating from the Humphrey Institute,
Fustgaard worked for Global Volunteers, an organization that coordinates volunteer
service programs abroad and in the U.S. She then took a position at the Minnesota
Department of Human Services. Eventually, Fustgaard’s desire to work with health
care issues led her to Medica.
“I get to work on a variety of projects and policy issues, and my position
is a chance to be involved with public sector initiatives while working in
the private sector,�? said Fustgaard as she explained her current job. “Medica
does more social service work than I would have guessed. Of course, some of
it is with an eye on reducing health care expenditure, but it benefits some
great programs. I sit on a board that gives grants to different organizations
that run prevention programs. Some examples have been programs to educate parents
on how to avoid lead poisoning in their children, increase literacy among immigrant
children, and groups that protect the rights of recent African immigrants to
basic health care. These issues were at the center of my fellowship, and I
feel I got some basic information that really helps me in my position now.�?
Fustgaard’s 1996 Fellowship and her experience at Medica have given her an
outsider’s perspective at alternate systems of health care that goes beyond
that of many of her colleagues. It’s a perspective she is thankful for, and
one that impacts her perception of America’s health care crisis: “I can see
the benefits of the single payer system, because it eliminates the competing
interests that are such a problem in the U.S. Yet, working for the state government
and seeing that kind of bureaucracy has shown me the downside of that system
too. I know that as an employed person, I would rather have coverage that my
employer treats as a generous perk to me than be in the same line with everyone
else. Health care is such a basic human right because when people don’t have
coverage, it becomes such a major issue that it can outweigh everything else
in their lives. If you don’t have the ability to take care of your own and
your family’s health, everything else falls by the wayside.�?