Brandeis Alumni Newsletter Editor:

I read your obit piece on Stuart Altman because I’m a Brandeis grad (‘63); and also as a long time health policy reform advocate for a single payer health care program.  Medicare for all (Jayapal/Sanders) would save hundreds of billions and cover everyone without out of pocket costs from cradle to grave.  I know little about Stuart Altman, but I was not surprised that you managed to avoid saying exactly what health policy reforms Altman principally championed to all those presidents.  My guess would be that he avoided advocating for the global reform that most policy experts know would solve the health care crisis as why you dumbed down the obit.  You are writing to a well educated and very smart audience, so I surmise that I am not the only Brandeis alumnus who noted your omission.  What did Altman stand for in his policy advising role?  Medicare for All has been the central policy debate in health care in the US ever since Medicare was restricted to elders by Congress in the 60s, a stroke of financial market-supporting genius.  Omission of Altman’s views on health policy is a bit of a sad commentary on Brandeis and American Academia these days,  I am afraid.  Whether he supported or opposed the idea that Obama said was the solution, but “politically impossible” in the context of Wall Street, Insurance Company and Pharma power, your responsibility as an alumni newsletter was to tell us at least a little about Altman’s policy role either way. 

Marc Sapir MD, MPH (retired primary care, geriatrics, and public health)