From Daily Planet Staff Reports

Unless there is radical change soon, the United States is facing a cataclysmic challenge in health care in the near future as baby-boomers retire, leaving too few productive people to shoulder the cost burden, Dr. Olson Huff warned in a recent address in Asheville.

Worse, the nearly 20 percent of American children who remain mired in poverty generation after generation constitute a wasted resource, the award-winning pediatrician said, adding that if that group were provided with educational opportunities to become productive, they could help the nation fend off the looming health-care crisis.

His talk, titled “Poverty in Our Times: Wasted Lives,” was the season finale of the Critical Issues Luncheon series sponsored by Leadership Asheville Forum. About 60 people attended the May 21 presentation at the Buncombe County Board of Education building. He spoke for 35 minutes and fielded questions for 15 minutes.

Huff, who was the founding medical director of Mission Children’s Hospital, is a senior fellow with Action for Children North Carolina.

He began by asking those present if they have funds to cover their Social Security — if the latter is not available to them — and who will be taking care of them when they get old.

As the audience mulled his questions, Huff said, “I have no prepared speech,” and then asserted that his talk would focus on “the significant toxic effect of poverty in our state, our community,” which is “resulting in more wasted lives” than most people realize.

He said preparedness is important, given the problems with a graying American society and a rapidly depleting government-administered Social Security system.

 In referring to Mark in the New Testament, he said, “Like Mark, I say, ‘Listen up, folks, there’s something you need to hear.’”

Huff then cited a UNICEF report in 2006 that found that “traditionally, we measure IQs as a measure of achievement, educationally.” But the report found that “a sense of worth was more important than IQ or other criteria in people’s achievements.”