Passion about health care reform packs meeting hall

Voices and applause rang out Thursday night from a packed church community hall where participants sought fresh ideas for a perennial issue: Fixing our nation's ailing health care system. In an evening devoted to airing complaints and sharing ideas, the most often-heard suggestion: Universal health care is best.

"There's no reason we can't aim for a health care system that covers everyone," said Dr. Mary Jane Gray.

Organizers counted 129 people filling the tables at "Your Oregon, Your Health," a public forum funded by the Northwest Health Foundation. Thursday's event was the last of 14 such meetings across the state hosted presented by The Oregon Health Fund Board.

Corvallis Mayor Charlie Tomlinson was among those who spoke: "Health care access is a very important issue for us as a community, a state and a nation," he said. "I'm convinced that the local level has a significant role in crafting (policy)."

At one of the tables, a retired physician, two nurses and other health-care professionals and community members passionately discussed their opinions based on four health care scenarios presented by the board. Some of the comments:

• "We have to look at everyone being included (in health care coverage)," participant Judith Fisher said. "Not who fits and who is going to be excluded."

• "We're a capitalist country, and a lot of our money goes to corporate earnings," said Hal Merrill, who advocated a system that didn't force employers to pay in, and a stripping-away of bureaucracy. "Our government tries to do too many things for too many people, and they don't do anything well."

Merrill's wife Sue, who is a nurse, said the country's priorities were out of whack: "We do not see health care as a basic need. We don't see the value of it, and some consider (funding it) a drain."

"I don't think some people are aware it's a problem," Fisher agreed.

Among the problems cited: High deductibles, denying coverage for pre-existing conditions, raising rates when someone gets sick and forcing a waiting period for coverage when employees are first hired. Sue Merrill called those actions "punitive."

Laurie Labbitt wants to see private insurance companies go away altogether.

"Right now, someone who doesn't know about health care is making the decisions."

Caring more about the cost than the person receiving it, such faceless strangers are determining what kinds of treatments are covered and how they are administered.

By the end of the meeting, when ideas from each table were compared, many had echoed Labbitt's suggestion to eliminate private insurance companies. Other oft-suggested reforms were moving to a single-payer, government-funded universal system and capping the maximum penalty for malpractice lawsuits.

More controversial ideas included increasing access to medical marijuana and taxing it to raise money, or creating a sales tax to fund the health care system.

For more information about the forum and its goals, see www.healthforum.org and www.talkhealthreform.org.