Questions raised about healthcare reform plan
By KEN BLACK, TIMES-REPUBLICANArticle Photos
An aide for Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, gave a brief overview of the healthcare plan currently before Congress and responded to questions and concerns at the Marshalltown Medical & Surgical Center Tuesday.
Amy Campos, the aide, noted there are still a lot of things being debated and the country is not close to seeing a finished product on the bill.
"A lot of this is still going to be incredibly blank," she said.
She was asked a question from one person in attendance about who the winners and losers will be in the healthcare reform package. The concern raise was that the bill would favor trial lawyers wanting to sue for malpractice.
"I have no idea who the winner will be," she said. "Dialogue, you can't even say, has begun yet. ... They are looking for the patient to gain the most from this bill."
Campos said it was also a fine line how much government would get involved in the administration and dispensing of healthcare.
Despite the concerns, some did advocate for a new system.
Arlene McAtee, director of the Mid Iowa Community Action Agency, said the current system has a major flaw.
"There's no inherent logic to tying people's healthcare to their employer," she said. "We have all these people who are wandering outside the system because we tied it to the employer."
However, Ken Anderson, president of the Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce expressed another point of view.
"The reverse of that is you can't tie healthcare to government because they have no demonstrated ability to control costs," he said.
One physican, Dr. Ron Terrill, said he realizes he may be in the minority in the medical community, but did see a role for the government in the administration of healthcare.
"I hope that something moves out of all this," he said. "I'm willing to junk our private system because it sucks. It's terrible. It's awful."
President Barack Obama has asked Congress to send him a major healthcare reform package by the time it recesses in August.
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Contact Ken Black at 641-753-6611 or kblack@timesrepublican.com
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higherground
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06-25-09 9:40 PM
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immigration law ? And guess what,GOAMERICA ? This was a Federal grant from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. Assuming you pay Federal Income Tax, you helped pay for this prenatal program right along with your fellow tax-paying American citizens.(P.S. - Personally I don't have a problem helping subsidize medical care for those who are LEGITIMATELY UNABLE to pay their way - but I have a huge problem with discrimination and illegal immigration.)
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higherground
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06-25-09 9:18 PM
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GOAMERICA - Yoy say "you should not have health care if you can't pay for it" and "you do not want to pay for anyone's doctor visits" ? The $150,000 grant that was awarded to MMSC for the Building Healthy Families program was used to create a "new prenatal component targeted at helping the county's Hispanic families"(quote from Ryan Brinks article titled "Federal grant to help local Hispanics" in the Sunday T-R dated May 14, 2006). Participation was based on need ("can't pay for it") and included services of M'town OB/GYN, Primary Health Care, and MMSC (lots of doctor services being provided here), and only Hispanic women were allowed to participate(hopefully you're as indignant as I am that pregnant non-Hispanic ladies were left to fend for themselves !!) Also, are you concerned that since legal immigration status was not a requirement for participation, a situation was created which encouraged and rewarded the flouting of Federal imm
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higherground
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06-25-09 6:41 PM
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Johnson - The T-R selected the last two sentences of your original post to print in the "Online Comments" section of today's(Thursday June 25) paper. I think you did a superb job of researching and presenting all your comments on this article!
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Johnson
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06-24-09 5:37 PM
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GOAMERICA: You already are, that’s the point, and some of these people are defending you against your enemies, keeping you safe, providing you an education, and making sure you have a nice road to get to work on (etc., etc., etc.).
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GOAMERICA
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06-24-09 3:19 PM
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You should not have health care if you can't pay for it.I do not want to pay for anyone's doctor visit's.
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higherground
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06-24-09 2:11 PM
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P.S. My employer of 30 years donated land for the new library but does not choose to more adequately subsidize medical care for salaried nonexempt retirees.
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higherground
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06-24-09 1:10 PM
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Johnson-You are dead-on correct. Medicare costs me @1156.80 per year and pays 80% after $135.00 deductible--the employer I retired from collects @1416.00 from me yearly and supposedly pays something after $2000.00 deductible/out-of-pocket. I've been retired 10 years and so far the $2000.00 up-front requirement has allowed them to pay ZILCH. (P.S.-I do feel I have paid my dues to gov't in that I began paying into Social security at age 14 and into Medicare when it was introduced shortly thereafter, retiring after being fully employed for 45 years.)
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Johnson
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06-24-09 11:34 AM
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According to the US Census Bureau’s report “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2006, published in August 2007, 27 per cent of Americans had their health coverage paid by Medicare, Medicaid, or the U.S. military. (ref. table on page 20, Figure 7). This percentage does not take into account state and federal employees, whose private plans are also funded by taxpayer dollars. Including these people brings the percentage to 34 percent of the total U.S. population of 299,398,484 had publicly-funded, taxpayer-financed health insurance that year. It also doesn’t include veterans receiving healthcare from the VA, so that adds another 8 percent. 42 percent of Americans already use the government for healthcare. Ask them if they are willing to give it up for private healthcare insurance.
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AverageAmerican
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06-24-09 10:34 AM
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"incredibly blank" AND "I have no idea who the winner will be" Compost & Harkin, like their DEM ilk are trying to get a balnk check fro another few trillion. Trial lawyers and big government will be winners---and Joe Average will get stuck paying a fortune for lousy service---if they can get even that.
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