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The group voted on the following points to forward to the Obama Health Care Reform team, headed by Health and Human Services designee, former Senator Tom Daschle. In addition, included in this report are notes from the considerable discussion on items we did not have time to vote on and a synopsis of the participant surveys.
Item #1:
The biggest problem in the health care system is that health care is mainly paid for by health insurance companies, who make their profits by denying care. The cost of health insurance is too high and 47 million Americans don't have health insurance. People with serious illnesses, who have health insurance, often become bankrupt because the insurance company pays only part of their medical costs.
Item #2
The Federal government needs to control the cost of prescription medicines by such measures as negotiating the prices with pharmaceutical companies, limiting profits, and restricting advertising. This will not limit research as the bulk of pharmaceutical research is now done in universities and financed by the government.
Item #3
Congress should adopt a single payer, privately delivered medical system such as that of House Resolution 676. This would eliminate the patchwork for-profit payment system, while doctors and hospitals would still be private.
Item #4
We have a serious shortage of primary care providers—which includes physicians, nurse practitioners, and other qualified professionals. This trend could be reversed by providing stipends and loan forgiveness to those who choose primary care.
Medical education is expensive, and hence physicians choose specialties in which they can earn incomes greater than those earned by primary care providers.
Item #5
Health Care and Education should be Human Rights.
Item #6
Employers should not have to provide health care. If employers were freed of the burden of providing health care, U.S. businesses would become more profitable and be able to compete better with other countries which have national universal health care.
Item #7
Cost Control measures need to be adopted. A major factor in controlling costs would be to prevent illness through public education and providing regular medical check ups and tests. To do this, increased funding would need to be provided to public health departments
Points from the discussion and other written responses which participants submitted at the end of the meeting are listed below:
- Support single payer system, to include all necessary medical needs, including dental and mental health
- Pass HR 676, a single payer system to expand & improve Medicare for All (several were not familiar with HR 676, or didn’t fully understand so I have listed this separately from supporting single payer)
- Employers should not provide health care, but should pay a payroll tax to support national health care
- Better preventative care & public health education – increase funding
- Lack of access is the biggest problem
- For profit insurance companies are a big part of the problem
- Portability is needed for health care (not tied to job or location)
- Lack of available primary care providers needs to be remedied
- Suggestions to improve:
- Increase reimbursement to PCP
- Expand National Health Services scholarship
- Subsidies for tuition for PCP
- Need to control the price of pharmaceuticals
- Health care must be considered a basic human right
- Need to improve mental health treatment
- Inclusion of alternative medicine
- Need to have dental care covered
- Faster physician reimbursement
Click here to download the complete report including survey results (78k PDF file - Adobe Acrobat req)
Reminder:
Next general meeting is Thursday, February 26, 2009 @ 7pm, 1700 N. State St, Bellingham, WA
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