MACOMB -- The only applause from the audience erupted when single payer health coverage was mentioned. But it's not going to happen, Cong. Phil Hare, D-17, told a Macomb audience on May 27.
Hare spent the day traveling around his district on a listening tour to find out how the public feels about health coverage reform. Congress is likely to act by August, he said.
Single payer coverage, like that enjoyed by every other industrial nation, is off the table, he said, since majorities in the House and Senate oppose it.
Hare said he supports single payer. "We don't have the votes to get it," he said. "It's not socialized medicine," he added.
Hare said the public insurance plan under consideration by Congress would charge people on a sliding scale, ban preexisting condition underwriting, cut administrative costs and paperwork and provide loan forgiveness for doctors and nurses who borrowed for their educations.
It would provide competition for the insurance companies as one way to control costs.
Hare spoke briefly then took audience questions for nearly an hour. A couple of McDonough District Hospital officials issued self serving statements about what a fine hospital they operate, and how it writes off $1.3 million in charity care.
A couple of doctors took issue with Hare's ideas, criticizing "government" plans and the like. One said doctors don't want to take Medicare patients because Medicare doesn't pay well enough.
"I'm going to lose money," a doctor said, complaining about proposed computerized requirements that may be part of the reforms.
They must have been listening to their friends the insurance companies rather than their patients.
The rest of the audience or more than 50 people that packed a meeting room at the hospital complex wanted single payer or the expansion of Medicare.
It's obvious that Hare gets it. He said the public insurance plan is a first step that could be expanded later into single payer. Without that option, he said, he might not vote for any reform that would simply maintain the status quo, which soon will be unaffordable for anyone.
The May 30 meeting in Peoria on health coverage with Aaron Schock, R-18th, likely will be quite different. There's a long list of panelists who no doubt will take up most of the time, leaving little room for questions. Schock, the son of a doctor, likely will rail against socialized medicine.
It's at 9 a.m. at the Universalist/Unitarian Church, on Richwoods Blvd off Sterling.
Here's another take on health care, from former OSF St. Francis Medical Center emergency department physician Dr. John Carroll, on ER overcrowding and money for hospitals.
And money is the culprit now in health care. It's too expensive. Insurance CEOs make $250,000 a day (!) Hare said, doctors live in mansions, and 45 million people have no coverage. Why people put up with this is a true mystery.
-- Elaine Hopkins
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