Health Care Reform Vital, Expert Says: ; Doctor is Set to Talk About the Issue With
DAILY MAIL STAFF
From his vantage point as president of the nonpartisan National Coalition on Health Care, Dr. Henry Simmons clearly is familiar with what’s happening in the field.
And it doesn’t look so promising, he said.
That’s why Simmons is scheduled to meet with Gov. Joe Manchin on Wednesday to encourage him to support efforts to reform health care, in one way or another.
“I’ve already met with a number of governors,” Simmons said. “And I will meet with many more in the next few months. This is a critical issue for the federal government, the private sector and state government.”
For instance, 15.6 percent of Americans, or 45 million, don’t even have health insurance. The percentage of those with employment- based health insurance dropped from 70 percent in 1987 to 61 percent last year. And providing services to the uninsured costs the United States $100 billion a year.
Simmons is hoping that all Americans recognize how serious the problem is.
“No one is safe in a system headed in this direction,” he said. “No one other than the very wealthiest can assure themselves that they will continue to have adequate coverage.
“The fact is, we spend a lot more money per capita than any nation in the world and don’t get better outcomes. In many instances, our system is worse, certainly wasteful. People don’t understand that. More is not better.”
Indeed, more expensive health care services and a resulting dwindling access to insurance also are adversely affecting the viability of pension funds.
All is not bleak, however.
Projections from the coalition say system-wide health-care reform would improve the health of Americans and save money in the long run.
Done right, health care reform will save the country “a great deal of money while at the same time assuring health coverage for all Americans and dramatically improving health care,” Simmons said.
The coalition, an alliance of more than 90 major organizations from the American Federation of Teachers to the Presbyterian Church USA to the Salvation Army, has calculated costs and savings associated with four options.
They include an employer mandate; expansion of existing public health insurance programs; creation of new public programs maybe modeled on the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan; and the establishment of a universal publicly financed program.
Employers who provide coverage now could save at least $195 billion a year in a decade with reform while employees could save another $40 billion, the report said.
And while universal coverage would cost initially $75 billion a year, savings would offset the expense, it said.
“This is probably the most serious domestic issue in our country,” said Simmons, president of the coalition for 15 years. “It demands changes and an educated, activated citizenry.
“There is a lot of support for the fixes we’re talking about.”
Contact Therese Smith Cox at therese@dailymail.com or 348-4874.