Pharmaceutical leader calls for US health insurance

GlaxoSmithKline’s chief executive Jean-Pierre Garnier has warned the US government it may need to devise a national health insurance system.

Speaking before an audience of healthcare specialists, Mr Garnier said it was feasible that a national framework could be developed which would be capable of supporting such a move, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

A basic minimum could be established for healthcare needs, he argued, which would offer coverage for the most immediate and urgent needs without costing vast sums.

“Now I am not [recommending] national insurance that pays for everything and anything,” the newspaper reported him saying.

Instead he argued that the move would ensure everyone who needed to could access basic health treatment, regardless of the provisions of their job or their general economic status ? putting an end to “gaps in the system”.

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