Health care reform forum fosters local ideas
The U.S. health care system needs to put patients ahead of profits, participants in a forum hosted by the First Unitarian Church agreed Sunday.
“Let’s forget about whether the patient has insurance or not,” one attendee, Larry Symonds, said. “Let’s make the first question, what are you going to do to get them into proper care? How does that affect things?”
Proposals for restrictions on administrative costs and a single-payer option of some kind were both strongly favored by the small group of about 20 who participated in this community event.
The First Unitarian Church organized the Sunday night discussion session as a follow-up to a recent screening of “Sicko,” the 2007 documentary by filmmaker Michael Moore. The downtown church, which has made promoting social justice one of its goals, regularly shows films and documentaries dealing with social issues.
Don Manning, a member of First Unitarian’s social justice committee, said they organized the health care forum to facilitate a free exchange of ideas in a nonjudgmental setting.
“We want to get all the ideas out on the table,” he said. “… It’s so important to do things on a local basis, to grow things locally, the way we want them done. And this is a democracy. We can take our ideas to the legislators and tell them, look, here’s what we’ve decided we want to do in Lynchburg.”
The forum lasted about 2 ½ hours and asked participants to address the problem of a health care system that “costs too much, wastes too much and leaves too many without care.”
Ideas presented at the end of the meeting included: single-payer health care, capping administrative costs and doctors’ salaries, free medical school, eliminating private insurance companies and raising corporate taxes to pay for a better health care system.
Many said they were concerned the current medical system focuses too heavily on generating profits.
The First Unitarian Church plans to compile a document summarizing each recommendation made. Manning said this was the first such event the church has hosted, but it will consider organizing others in the future.
Advertisement
Reader Reactions
HUSA’s site is a bandwagon site that sounds like the right-wing blowhard newscasters on fox.
i don’t appreciate it in any respect. i find obama to be much more genuine and respectable than any of the presidents who have served during my lifetime.
also, i have read the proposals from the house, and the gross misinterpretation from bloggers and newscasters must be attributed to circular reasoning and poor reading comprehension. the average american adult reads on a 5th grade level.
lastly, i think that your perception of the proposals as being biased toward union workers and minorities come off as racist. america’s policies and the general american mindset have been racist and sexist for centuries. i will be happy to see policy changes that reflect a better attitude towards women and people of color.
Yes I agree patients before profits would be awesome but that is not what this bill is about. This bill has its own rotten agenda and has been misnamed, just like everything else Obama does, and what it is really about is Obama’s own agenda to give minorities and Union workers an advantage while making the rest of us pay for it! This is the truth whether any one else likes it or not and if this bill passes everyone that is not a minority or union worker is going to find out the hard way! MARK MY WORDS!
I’m not hiding behind anything. My name is Robert Stone and my real email address is posted on the site. As for Healthcare reform… Yes lets believe everything the government says because that is always the truth! If the founding fathers had done that then where would we be right now? If any of you had read the bill then you would know about the minority biases that are actually being questioned right now and how it will eliminate a lot of peoples options by requiring one to carry a policy that contains a long list of coverages that no one can possible need all of. Where right now current insurance carriers allow one to add and remove coverages as one needs them! So before any of you try and state facts or post from government related sites remember all of the congressmen and women asked in a recent poll stated that they had only read part or some even said none of the healthcare reform bill!
In response to the August 11 posting, a quick check of the suggested HUSA web site includes a mission statement that says, in part: “Let us not divide our house anymore or it will fall. Instead let us come together as a people determined to bring our country back to its days of greatness”
Tell me exactly how the information set forth on this bogus web site will bring us together and “bring our country back to its days of greatness”??? Clearly, their approach would seem to have the opposite effect. As an admirer of President Lincoln and how he saved this great country from a devastating schism, the words ring hollow and carry the unmistakable scent of one of those creatures that sport a white stripe down its back. (Starts with S——.) Makes one curious about what their motives really are.
Perhaps HUSA might gain some credibility if somewhere on their site it identified who was really behind this debacle. The brave souls who crafted the Declaration of Independence signed their full names for all to see, knowing they could be signing their death sentence. The signers of the Constitution did so knowing many of their fellow citizens of this new nation did not agree with them and risked their wrath when they returned home. Where’s the risk in anonymity? If we’re going to have an honest debate on Health Care Reform, lets do it openly and not under the cover of darkness disguised as light.
This is exactly the type of grassroots effort that needs to happen with Healthcare Reform. There are a lot of opinions about what real healthcare reform looks like and who should be paying for it. Whether it’s single-payer or the status quo, better than 60% of the public wants wholesale change and a better healthcare product.
I’ve heard lots of reasons for not doing anything. Tops among them are that most people CHOOSE not to have health insurance even if it’s affordable. So, why should we change a system that most people choose not to use even if they can afford to pay for health insurance? That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard and a statement that is used over and over again that has zero basis in any fact.
The fact is that the people that fall into this catagory of “chosing not to have health insurance” fall into the “crack” of making too much money for Medicare and not enough to pay for a basic health insurance plan that is out of reach for millions. And then there’s the ones that can afford health insurance but the health insurance companies won’t cover because of a “pre-existing condition.“ These two groupings of uninsured Americans that I just described, make up nearly all of the 47 million that are uninsured.
Imprimis expresses on of the last of the major reasons for doing nothing to change our healthcare system. Not wanting a government bureaucrat comging between patients and doctors. Here’s a news flash Imprimis,... It is already happening and has been since the last time we tried to get healthcare reform back in 1992-93. That bureaucrat that you fear so much is the Health Insurance Industry. The mis-places faith in their benevolence that they will take care of us because they have a “profit motive” to do a good job has been proven time and time again that they serve their shareholders and not the people they insure. Their goal is to provid the least amount of healthcare coverage for the maximum amount of profit. If they actually worked the way you have described, then we wouldn’t be having this discussion and need for wholesale healthcare reform.
The Healthcare Reform that millions want and are working for right now can be a totally inovative American solution. Stop refering to the Healthcare Systems of Canada and Great Britian and start refering to nations that have figured it out like France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Japan, Italy, China, Korea. The countries that I have just listed have different forms of national healthcare that range from true socilized healthcare to a mix of privitized and public options. And, they all work. Canada and Great Britian know they have to fix their systems, but they can’t be the reason why we continue to do nothing. Stop talking about why we can’t and start talking about solutions that lower costs and don’t exclude people based on pre-existing conditions.
Good job on the forum Don Manning. Keep up the good work!
I agree with Don Manning. I would love to see health care reform on a broad scale. I am not interested in the opinions of people more interested in their wallets than in the well being of others.
I would venture to guess that if some of the people who stick with right-wing partisan politics on all of the issues really did some serious soul-searching, they would be ashamed at their priorities.
Just like with public education, public healthcare is a must. Everyone deserves a chance to be healthy and well. There will be problems and maintenance reform will be needed, but the conversion overall is what’s best for the country.
‘imprimis’ says he/she doesn’t want our health care system “controlled by mindless, heartless, faceless bureaucrats in some Government office, backing by massive salary and benefit packages for the overseers, and NO accountability to the users of health care.“
Now that sounds precisely like how most of us would describe the health care industry. Listen to the horror stories people tell about having their procedures or medications denied by the faceless, mindless, overpaid bureaucrats of the insurance industry.
This response is the typical tactic used by the big 3 and their well paid minions to keep our unknowing populace in check.(Wonder if ‘imprimis’ is one of those minions…hm-m-m-m-m-m?) Sorry, but that kind of logic won’t fly.
In a best case scenario many of the people who now work in the insurance industry could be moved over to manage the country’s Health Care System - with well regulated salaries and responsibilities. Their role would be to respond to the patients’ needs as determined by their medical care team (independent doctors, clinics, hospitals, etc.).
If you think gov’t bureaucracy is so bad, why does our Medicare System function on just 2-3% overhead as opposed to private insurance at 60%-plus? To the extent there is waste or misuse in Medicare, it is from shysters taking advantage and over-billing. Ask anyone who has Medicare what they think of it. Is it perfect? No. Would I opt for private coverage instead? No way.
One final point. When our legislators gave in to the “private choice is better” myth and allowed private insurance companies to offer an option to Medicare (Medicare Gold), the private companies were allowed to offer more, costlier benefits at a lower cost for one reason. Those additional costs and benefits are subsidized by our tax dollars out of Medicare funds. That is a big reason Medicare funding is in jeopardy. At least it keeps Wall Street and its investors happy. Ain’t this a great country, or what?
This is my take on the entire situation. Let’s say you go to the doctor and they run test. You end up with a bill for around $2000. If you have no insurance you are stuck trying to pay the bill. If you have insurance they laugh at the bill tell the provider that they are only getting around $250 and they can’t get the rest out of the patient. They should have only changed the $250 to start with. Then they will not gouge the person without the insurance coverage. They already know what the service is worth. Why charge that amount when they know the person that does not have insurance does not have it because they can’t afford the insurance and if they can’t afford the insurance they sure can’t afford to pay that $2000 ridiculous bill.
poppop1 says - “Health care should not be subject to the profit motive and the whims of Wall Street.“
I’ll tell you, I’d just about rather have it subject to people who have at least SOME motivation to satisfying my needs, as opposed to having my health care and the funding of it controlled by mindless, heartless, faceless bureaucrats in some Government office, backing by massive salary and benefit packages for the overseers, and NO accountability to the users of health care.
WHY do I want my health care handled like the IRS or the Division of Motor Vehicles or any other uncaring government machine?
At least the “profit motive” guys have SOME sort of motive to work for me even if they’re not always in my best interests. A Government program has NO motivation to help me and will NEVER work in my best interests.
“New York Times: July 16, 2009
Editorial
A Strong Health Reform Bill
While the Senate continues to struggle over its approach to health care reform, House Democratic leaders have unveiled a bill that would go a long way toward solving the nation’s health insurance problems without driving up the deficit. It is already drawing fierce opposition from business groups and many Republicans. This is a bill worth fighting for.”
__________________
Here’s the bottom line, if there is no public health insurance choice, there is no health care reform, the Republicans and the health insurance lobbyists win again, and the American people lose! The Health Care Insurance industry has no incentive for reform with their CEOs receiving multi-million dollar salaries for acting as a barrier in refusing, delaying, downgrading or rationing health care to their insured members and reimbursement to the professional health care providers. Why, for example, Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland are able to provide health care for all their citizens but the United States is seemingly unable or refuses to do so? How many citizens of Switzerland have to file for bankruptcy because of health care costs? Answer is NONE! Republicans stridently oppose consideration of a reformed health care or public health care insurance, which only continues a dysfunctional health care system presently realizing a surge of uncompensated care for those who have lost their jobs and health care insurance. Millions of Americans have loss their jobs and employer sponsored health insurance in the last year alone and/or face bankruptcy because of health care costs! Republicans refuse to acknowledge that health care reform is essential to America’s well being and even competitiveness. Republicans, earnestly and with mythical religiosity, intervened in the personal health care of Terri Schiavo but refuse to support health care reform for all Americans. All Americans deserve the same health care as Dick Cheney, don’t you agree?
Advertisement