As the topic of health care reform is splashed across national headlines and dominates talk shows, Cornell students and faculty also joined in the debate by gathering in Alice Cook House last night for a discussion panel called “Health Care Reform: How will it affect you?”

The questions brought forth to the panel — which included Prof. Sean Nicholson, policy analysis and management; Prof. Kosali Simon, policy analysis and management; and Prof. Elaine Wethington, human development and sociology — presented the difficulty and controversy surrounding the topic.

“The U.S. Health Care System is not the highest quality but not the lowest quality,” Nicholson said. “The reason why costs are so high for health insurance in the United States is because we provide the best in high tech services.”

Nicholson also provided the audience with shocking statistics about the number of Americans who are without health insurance, which Simon defined as “financial service regarding one’s health.”

“Forty-seven million people do not have health insurance,” Nicholson said. “Half of the uninsured cannot afford insurance and we won’t be going to a single system where everybody will receive the same benefits.”

The second question presented to the panel was a difficult one to answer. Who would actually gain and who would lose?

According to the panelists, the answer largely depends on an individual’s economic status.

Simon also said that by taxing people for services, such as expansions in the Medicaid program and more subsidies to low-income families, there is more to be gained by lower income people.

Let me explain: Prof. Kosali Simon, policy analysis and management, addresses students’s questions at the Health Care Reform panel discussion in Alice Cook House yesterday.

The more trivial issue involved the middle class. Professor Nicholson explained that Congress has the say when it comes to health care reform. He also said it is hard to predict what will happen to the middle class and that the cost of premiums will largely determine if the middle class benefits or losses.

“If we think about health care reform as two elements, we face the issue of figuring out how to insure more people and how we can reduce health care costs,” Simon said. “If you think about just reducing costs, inefficiencies are taken out and all of us benefit.”

The issue of race and low rate of visits to doctors within ethnic groups posed another problem.

“We need to figure out how to engage in the types of health education and preventative care,” Wethington said. “Working on lifestyle and education might, in the long run, be more effective for reducing health disparities.”

Simon added: “Poverty alleviation is the key to solving a lot of the problems.”

The discussion ended with suggestions of an alternative plan to President Barack Obama’s.

“An alternative is to go to the Switzerland model,” Wethington said. “ In this case, everyone will have to buy private health care.”