[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 133 (Monday, September 10, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S11322]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      TRIBUTE TO DR. PHILIP R. LEE

 Mrs. FEINSTEIN. Mr. Presdient, today I recognize Dr. Philip R. 
Lee, a pioneering Californian and fellow San Franciscan, who has been a 
dynamic leader in health policy for more than 40 years. This September, 
the health policy program that Dr. Lee founded 35 years ago at the 
University of California, San Francisco, UCSF, will be renamed the 
Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies in his honor.
  Dr. Lee is a giant among health professionals. His work in health 
care policy continues to affect how millions of Americans receive 
health care today. He served as Assistant Secretary for Health on two 
occasions; under President Johnson in the sixties and under President 
Clinton in the nineties. During the first 8 months of his tenure as 
Assistant Secretary in 1965, more than 80 landmark healthcare bills 
were passed including Medicare and Medicaid; health professions 
education assistance amendments; heart disease, cancer, and stroke 
amendments; the war on poverty; Job Corps; food stamps; and Head Start, 
to name a few.
  Especially significant was Dr. Lee's work in developing policies for 
the newly created Medicare Program, his work to fund graduate medical 
education, and the work he is most proud of, the desegregation of 1,000 
of the Nation's 7,000 hospitals at a time when discrimination was a 
real problem in the Nation.
  I am proud to say that as mayor of San Francisco in 1985, I appointed 
Dr. Lee as the first president of the newly established health 
commission of the city and county of San Francisco. He was in charge of 
San Francisco's public health, mental health and substance abuse 
services, as well as San Francisco General Hospital. Dr. Lee served the 
health care needs of the residents of San Francisco during challenging 
times when the city was in the midst of the AIDS epidemic. He has 
served our city well.
  Dr. Lee's influence also extends to health care education. As UCSF's 
third chancellor, he was charged with the instruction of future health 
care professionals and the running of a premier research university. As 
chancellor, he was known for his commitment to academic excellence and 
his efforts to stimulate minority recruitment and enrollment. When Dr. 
Lee founded the Institute of Health Policy Studies at UCSF, it was the 
first health policy unit in an academic health sciences center to bring 
together a multidisciplinary group of faculty to address complex health 
issues.
  Dr. Lee's career has been devoted to improving health care and public 
health for all people. He has an unwavering commitment to the needs of 
the disadvantaged, including the elderly, the disabled, and those 
without access to care. Yet he is able to encourage evenhanded policy 
debate among parties with highly divergent views in a manner that 
encourages creative innovation.
  He continues to be a valued teacher and mentor for many who are now 
in key positions as researchers, teachers, and as leaders in the health 
professions. It is fitting that the institute he founded three decades 
ago, the UCSF School of Medicine Institute for Health Policy Studies, 
will now be re-named the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy 
Studies.
  I wish to congratulate Dr. Lee on this tremendous honor and thank him 
for his service to the city of San Francisco and the State of 
California.

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