Medical 'Rock Star' Returns To Hometown
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Dr. Andrew Weil brought his call for a revolution in health care to Philadelphia, Sunday. His appearance was a homecoming, of sorts.
Dr. Weil has been called a medical rock star and the guru of the wellness movement for his work in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, but he was born at Hahnemann and graduated from Central High School.
He's spent decades trying to shift the focus of American medicine.
"We do not have a health care system in America. We have a disease management system," Dr. Weil says.
He says that system, though the most costly in the world, produces among the worst results, but also what he calls a "river of money" that pours into political campaigns and prevents real reform.
"The only way that I see this situation changing is if enough of you get aroused enough to start a grass roots movement that changes the politics of the system," he explains.
Dr. Weil spoke to an audience at a wellness fair sponsored by the Klein JCC.
