Posted: Thursday, May 31, 2007 12:00 am
As a radiation oncologist for 33 years, I have witnessed the graphic end-result of people not having timely access to medical care. Many people I cared for had waited until their cancers were advanced because they could not afford to see a doctor. For some, a cancer diagnosis was established in the emergency room, after they had become severely ill.
Legislation under consideration in Salem could greatly reduce the incidence of neglected illness and the suffering that results from it. Senate Bills 27 and 329 will achieve universal access to health care for Oregonians. SB 27 takes two important steps: 1) using medical research and public forum to prioritize medical services, and 2) pooling the funds of Medicare, Medicaid and employer contributions to allow all Oregonians a basic set of health care services including preventative care. SB 329 does not involve Medicare, but it is otherwise similar to SB 27.
Why do we need to prioritize all publicly funded medical services, including those paid for by Medicare? Because Medicare is a big part of our health care system that is bankrupting the nation through self-defeating incentives. All insurance providers reward hospitals and care givers for using expensive procedures and medications much more than for the preventative care that would have avoided the suffering and cost. Americans pay twice what people of other industrialized nations pay for health care although (by many standards) we are in poorer health.
We currently have health care rationing. One year, you might have health care because you are employed or in the right category of poverty or are older than 64 years. The next year, your ration of health care is removed because you are unemployed or in the wrong category of poverty or Medicare is finally out of money. Medicare insolvency is expected by 2017.
We even have a unique form of socialized medicine. Everyone does have access to medical care - at the emergency room. It's often a last resort, when treatments are too arduous, too ineffective and too expensive. People in these circumstances often cannot pay their medical bills, and the costs are then shifted to those of us who, for the time being, can still afford health care insurance. Meanwhile, insurance premiums continue to rise, becoming increasingly unaffordable to more people. SB 27 addresses these problems better than any other proposal in the nation because it controls costs in an equitable, evidence-based manner.
AARP opposes SB 27. AARP proposes instead its "Divided We Fail" program. This aptly titled plan keeps seniors "safely" sequestered in the upstream end of a canoe that is headed for the falls. The program does not navigate the canoe with all of its passengers, young and old, safely to shore. SB 27 does. AARP first says that SB 27 threatens a stable, reliable Medicare program and then acknowledges Medicare is in crisis. The AARP representative I spoke with in Salem last month said, "Medicare's problems should be solved nationally, not state by state." But he should know that political gridlock in Washington, DC., is forcing many states to become leaders in solving "national" problems.
When you see a good fight, join it. Log on to the Archimedes Movement Web site (archimedesmovement.org) or We Can Do Better (wecandobetter.org) to learn more about how you can help to bring sensible and sustainable health care to Oregon and the nation. Please also write and e-mail members of the Joint Ways and Means Committee in Salem (www.leg.state.or.us) urging them to approve Senate Bill 27. You might even drop a line to AARP.
Michael Huntington is a Corvallis physician.