U.S. health care, the diagnosis is it's broken

[Guest guest]

At house party on U.S. health care, the diagnosis is it's broken

By Pear Published: December 23, 2008

VIENNA, Virginia: When a dozen consumers gathered over the weekend to

discuss health care at the behest of President-elect Barack Obama,

they quickly agreed on one point: they despise health insurance companies.

They also agreed that health care was a right; that insurance should

cover " everything, " not just some services; and that coverage should

be readily available from the government, as well as from employers.

Those were the conclusions of a house party held here in Northern

Virginia at the home of Karima Hijane and Theodore Kolovos,

information technology consultants who have been married for seven

years. It was one of more than 4,200 such events being held around the

country from Dec. 15 to 31, as part of an experiment in grass-roots

politics and policy-making, to provide recommendations to the

president-elect.

" We have to keep the momentum going, " said Hijane, 34, who was a

volunteer in the Obama campaign and is active in women's health

advocacy. " We are not lobbyists. We are simple citizens. We want to

make sure that our voices are heard and that health care is reformed. "

One of the people seated around Hijane's dining room table, Bruce

Chatman, worked for IBM for 29 years. Corporations, he said, have too

much influence in the legislative process and the health care system.

He wants to counterbalance their power with the energy and passion of

citizens lobbying for themselves.

Chatman, a Chicago native who lives in Fort Washington, land, said

he had been inspired by Obama's book " The Audacity of Hope " and

started working for his campaign as a volunteer in April 2007.

" I don't believe health care should depend on people making money, "

Chatman said. " The profit motive has to be tempered, especially on the

administrative side of the health care business. "

Shiva Makki, an economist, complained that in many cases, insurers did

not cover the costs of screening procedures and preventive care.

Dr. Lawrence , a scientist at the National Institutes of Health

who emphasized that he was speaking as a private citizen, said: " The

incentives in the current health insurance system are upside down. The

less care you provide, the bigger your profits. "

said he liked Obama's proposal to create a new public plan,

similar to Medicare, that would compete with private insurance companies.

Lawson, a volunteer in the Obama campaign now trying to build

public support for Obama's agenda, said a public plan would give

people a choice they do not have.

" A public insurance plan would not take anything away, " Lawson said.

" It just adds another option. "

After one speaker expressed a mild concern about too much involvement

by the government, Kolovos said: " Everyone is afraid of government

bureaucracy. But what we have now, with the filing and adjudication of

insurance claims, is also bureaucratic. "

Several people at the health care forum said they were frustrated by

the current arrangement under which health insurance is tied closely

to the workplace.

Hamudi Almasri, a 35-year-old information technology consultant at a

small company that does work for the Labor Department, said that when

he changed jobs, he had to change health plans and doctors.

" If I change employers, why should it be such a hassle? " Almasri asked.

His wife, Li Yang, said: " When I move from one doctor to another, my

information is lost. In many cases, the doctors don't talk to each

other. In a country where information technology is so advanced,

there's no system linking all these doctors together. It's a hindrance

to treatment. "

Li said she and her husband " had a few surprises " when they started

shopping for a better health insurance policy on their own.

" If we wanted a baby, " Li said, " insurers would not cover the

maternity care if conception occurred within six months after we

purchased the insurance. We were shocked. "

In many cases, the standard individual insurance policy does not cover

maternity care, though such coverage can be bought for an additional

premium. Even then, some insurers stipulate that maternity benefits

will be available only if a woman waits for a certain amount of time

before becoming pregnant.

The Obama transition team asked for " particularly poignant stories to

highlight the need for health care reform, " and such stories were

abundant at the round table here.

Almasri said that when his infant daughter had severe eczema, she had

to wait several months to see a dermatologist in their HMO network. By

then, he said, " the symptoms were all cleared up. "

Hijane said she had gone from doctor to doctor for more than a year

before she got correct diagnoses for premature ovarian failure and

celiac disease, a digestive disorder.

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" Instead of being able to focus on my health, " Hijane said, " I focused

on insurance to cover the tests and treatments. Everything we did was

designed to find a job with good health insurance. "

The Obama transition team did not ask people how a new health care

system should be financed, but several people here said that

individuals and businesses should have to pay a small health care tax

— some preferred to call it a " contribution " — so that everyone could

be covered.

Chatman said he expected insurance companies and others in the health

care industry to resist many of Obama's proposals.

" This is warfare for the health care of our country, " Chatman said.

" The question is, Will money win, or will the people win? If we lose,

we'll be a second-class country. "

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/23/healthscience/23health.php