Ira Magaziner '69 P'06 P'07 discussed last night the challenges facing the AIDS-ravaged continent of Africa and the contributions made by the William J. Clinton Foundation's HIV/AIDS Initiative, which he chairs. He also addressed his role in spearheading the universal health care program former President Bill Clinton advocated at the start of his first term. Magaziner spoke in Sayles Hall before a crowd of students, politicians and community members.
"There is an opportunity by 2008 to make a turn on this disease," Magaziner said, explaining why the Clinton Foundation has focused on HIV treatment and prevention.
He told an anecdote of a meeting with former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela, who also headed the African National Congress, that led to the birth of the Clinton Foundation's HIV/AIDS Initiative.
According to Magaziner, Mandela told Clinton, "I'm too old to do this, but you said you wanted to do something for Africa, so do it." Clinton then turned to Magaziner and said he would spearhead the initiative if Magaziner would run it.
Magaziner said African leaders advised him that, "If we don't do anything about AIDS, it's going to sabotage anything e lse we are trying to do."
The foundation began work in the Bahamas and Rwanda and has since expanded to India, China, Ukraine and many other African nations, Magaziner said.
A major barrier to treating those infected with AIDS in these countries has been the expense of drug therapy, he said.
"In countries where their income per capita is $300, it's hard to convince them to spend $1,300 per person for treatment," Magaziner said.
The foundation's most prominent success has been reducing the cost of anti-retroviral drugs, the primary treatment for patients living with AIDS. The foundation reduced the cost of AIDS medication by at least one-third through a contract with Indian suppliers of generic HIV drugs, Magaziner said.
He also touched on the major domestic health initiatives that Clinton addressed as president.
After his speech, Magaziner was asked about recent portrayals of the Clinton administration and its fight for universal health care. He said the public campaign against health care reform successfully thwarted the plan.
"The opposition spent over $100 million in advertising - in direct mail and direct radio - to appeal to these swing voters," he said. "It was a very active campaign and very well financed that we could not counter. The White House is not allowed to engage in campaigns (like that) over policy."
In his speech, Magaziner said Clinton was the sixth president to support legislating universal health care.
"We got further than anybody else, but then eventually we got politically slaughtered," he said. Almost "every other developed country and many other developing countries have universal health coverage."
Magaziner said health care in the United States is in dire need of reform because 30 to 40 percent of costs go to administrative spending.
"Now we spend more than any other country on health care and our health outcomes are worse," he said.
The United States' health sector became very costly as a tangential effect of companies' thirst for profit in the late 1960s. Since that tiem, the number of people with health care dropped and administrative costs rose as corporate profits rose, Magaziner said.
"The (health) insurance companies found more and more that the best way to make money was to find and cover (only) healthy people. And the second way was to deny claims," he said.
Beyond the topic of public health, audience members asked Magaziner after the address about his career and connections to the Clinton administration.
"I think Senator Clinton is going to be re-elected to the Senate and hopefully succeed at that," Magaziner said in response to a question about whether Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., would run for president in 2008. "Whether it's Senator Clinton or not, I hope the country is ready to have a woman president if (the female candidate) is the best candidate. It's too early to tell if she would want to run."
The lecture, which was sponsored by the Brown and Yale University chapters of the Roosevelt Institution, followed a forum and dinner. Students from both universities presented their health policy initiatives and research to an audience of invited students, administrators, politicians and alums.
Sasha Rubel '06 described her research and humanitarian work in Mali incorporating AIDS education into West African means of artistic expression. She said theatrical and song-based peer education is the most effective way to transmit knowledge to African communities.
