Congress needs to finish the job - America's children need healthcare reform
It is time for the U.S. House of Representatives to finish the job and pass health reform
As a pediatrician, I can tell you firsthand that our children are hurting. Not only do I see children whose parents don’t have the high-quality, affordable health care coverage they need and deserve, but it is also clear that children are directly suffering. In the last several months I have seen a child become critically ill because they could not afford medicines to treat a chronic illness and a child whose life-threatening diagnosis was delayed after their parents lost jobs and subsequently their health insurance coverage - this should not be happening in our country.
All children in the United States should be able to have health care coverage and medical benefits that address their unique needs. If the House passes its measure, uninsurance in the United States would decrease by more than half, the Children’s Health Insurance Program would receive additional federal funding, and all children in the United States with private and public insurance would receive comprehensive, age-appropriate preventive benefits right away, for no co-pay. These proposed reforms will help children and families in Michigan. As the foundation of our country, children have the most at stake in this debate, because they will be the first ones to inherit the system we are working to reform. The reasons children need health reform today are just as strong as they were last year when this debate began. Let’s take care of our children and finish the job on health reform.
Stephen Patrick, MD, MPH Ann Arbor
Comments
Diagenes
Tue, Mar 23, 2010 : 8:17 p.m.
DonBee, Thanks for the Cliff notes version. You are right in your analysis. When bribery, arm twisting, joy riding on Airforce One and personal appeals to save President Obama's Presidency are needed to pass this bill it must really stink. All people should be outraged at the corrupt process which hatched this goose egg. This bill budgets billions to hire IRS agents to enforce the new taxes but does not train one new doctor. This is not health care reform. Its a political document ment to increase government control.
Martin Church
Tue, Mar 23, 2010 : 11:40 a.m.
Hope you like what you got. I think this bill is a mistake. Medicare was created flawed and has taken 40 years to fix multiple times only to find it broken again Now we have taken a quality medical system and broken it. Lets remember something insurance takes the total bill of a group of people adds them up and then splits the cost between those people. Now we are adding more people to the system with higher costs. That will drive up the cost of the insurance. Those people unemployed will no longer be able to buy food because the money given in unemployment will go to insurance. Look up MCHIP and you will see a Mother and 2 children cost $1200.00 a month for insurance, Unemployment pays most $600. every two weeks. There goes the unemployment check. No FOOD. but they have health care, or do they. They still have to pay the deuctable to get medication. No we have bankrupted our citizens. Health care will now be a 20%tax on your income. Don't believe me shop around. And the control of cost won't be there because trickle down means more money will be available for health care so the cost goes up because demand goes up and the ability to pay goes up. Doctor if you feel so bad about your clients why did you not pick up the cost. Oh I forgot, make a mistake pay higher malpratice insurance and your lawyer makes more money. Winners in this bill Lawyers, Hospitals and those who don't work. remind me why I have to work for a living and only keep 20% of my income.
Hot Sam
Mon, Mar 22, 2010 : 3:06 p.m.
ADB...Your absolutely right...I don't trust any of them... One of the first things The Obama did was to expand the SCHIP program. With huge fanfare he signed an executive order and declared that no child would have to worry about health care, and now all children would be covered... Now they want me to give them numbers? Hey I'm not he one that made the promise. This nonsense will lead to the same type of failure...It's not "reform" at all...
Anonymous Due to Bigotry
Mon, Mar 22, 2010 : 7:13 a.m.
I love how all the people who are for the current health care reform proposal like to refer to it simply as "reform" as though no other solution for reform were possible. Not only that, but if you oppose the current health care reform proposal then you're simply "opposing [all] reform". This kind of attitude is totally devoid of critical thinking. I'm not sure if it's arrogance, or just blind trust in the idea that your noble leaders are always going to do what's best for people. When you have Nanci Pelosi saying But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy." that should be a serious red flag. She might as well be saying that members of the public are too stupid to understand her amazingly advanced solution and can't be trusted to actually read what it is and make their own decisions, so just trust her because she's smart and the public is stupid. Seriously, how can you trust someone like this? I support reform, just not the current plan. Hopefully it will get fixed somehow, probably after lots of Democrats and the current President are voted out of office....
Hot Sam
Mon, Mar 22, 2010 : 4:02 a.m.
It's too bad that some seem to not actually read and respond to posts, in favor of continuing partisan anti American rants.
FreedomLover
Mon, Mar 22, 2010 : 4 a.m.
President Obama said he was going to be a uniter. Passage of this flawed bill has only served to further split out country. Why couldn't our elected representatives have come up with a better bill that some from both parties could support and pass? I am so disappointed in our elected leaders of both parties. It is time to start over and vote them all out of office. They have failed the American people.
David Briegel
Sun, Mar 21, 2010 : 9:26 p.m.
It sure is nuts! It was nuts when the Repubs had total control of our govt and not one single improvement was necesary. They claim to have 77 proposals yet not one was worthy of them doing ANYTHING to help real live people. If it were to help billionaires I'm certain it would have progressed. How many children are covered by SCHIP? How many aren't? If you can't answer that you can't be serious. Good post Jake C. All these people that hate govt need to stay off those govt run highways, and they need to consume all that poisoned crap sent here from China while enriching the Waltons! Hate gets us nowhere. Until we stop allowing the banks to foreclose and bankrupt the unfortunate souls that need health care and can't afford it, this is the start. We can work together to fix it. As long as I have to pay for the obscene military budget WE can ALL pay for the health care of the disadvantaged in our society. I am personally happy that my country is finally going to join the civilized world! Christian indeed! in4mation unwanted fetuses is the only concern of those who lost their argument. Right? Your logic.
Hot Sam
Sun, Mar 21, 2010 : 5:05 p.m.
If everyone is to have health care, then everyone should have some skin in the game. There should be a flat percentage tax from which each citizen is provided a voucher for a basic policy. The necessary rule would be that an insurer would have to provide that policy for the determined base level. They could compete by offering more for the same amount, or sell extras. You could eliminate the bureaucracy of medicaid, as it would really just be an expansion of medicare. This would be similar to what the Swiss do. This idea of 2,000 pages of special deals, added government, increased IRS powers is just nuts.
DonBee
Sun, Mar 21, 2010 : 4:49 p.m.
@stillatownie - Have you read the bill? I did, over the course of 2 and 1/2 weeks. it is deadly dull and full of contradictions. There is no extra coverage for children here, no national insurance program. Rebates to people who buy insurance, yes. Protection for large drug companies, yes. 4 years of waiting for the benefits to kick in yes. Taxes start this year, yes. Lots of new agencies, yes. Putting caps on malpractice, no. Letting insurers sell in any state, no. Money to put more doctors thru school, no. National licensing for medical professionals, no. Clear ways that more people will be covered by insurance, no. Taxes on many private insurance programs from employers, yes. In short if you are middle class, this bill does not help you. If you are sick, it might help you in 4 years from now, but not now. If you are a single young person, you will have to get insurance or pay extra taxes. The best thing you can do to keep your insurance, if you have it, is to unionize, since they get the exemption from the health care insurance. If you work for the UofM hospital system, you need to talk to your representative today and get a change to the way hospitals will be graded, or you will see job cuts, as the U of M gets less money for services, since they take on the sickest patients. There are literally pages and pages of special deals in this bill, none of which help anyone here in Michigan. In one way I want to say think you to our congresspeople for not stepping up to the trough, on the other hand, once again, this state will be short changed, and the state government will have to cover more people as insurance programs are dropped by small and mid-size employers. If I did not know better, I would say this is a bill designed to make things worse, so we have to move to a national health care program, but I am not that paranoid.
Tarlach
Sun, Mar 21, 2010 : 4:45 p.m.
It's amazing that in this day people still try and justify it being ok that a lot of people don't have health care and that attempts to provide it are somehow turning us into a socialist society. Instead of helping come up with something reasonable (which I wish they would have done because I think the bill would have been better) the right just throws out ridiculous amounts of misinformation.
Jake C
Sun, Mar 21, 2010 : 1:34 p.m.
@stunhsif: What government insurance plan are you referring to? Because I don't see one in the bill that's currently being debated right now. Everyone loves to complain about government-provided services, but the last time I renewed my driver's license at the Sec of State it took about 20 minutes. And renewing my plate each year takes me all of 5 minutes via the mail-in form. I've never had these "nightmare scenarios" that people love to throw around. And I just mailed a whole bunch of postcards to family and friends across the country for less than $10 using the USPS, and most arrived within 1-2 days. Amazing!
Hot Sam
Sun, Mar 21, 2010 : 1:33 p.m.
"""not ALL children are covered under SCHIPS.""" The intent of the program is that ALL children get coverage...if they don't, then it is yet another example of a government program that fails to reach it's goal.
stillatownie
Sun, Mar 21, 2010 : 12:50 p.m.
There sure is a lot of misinformation in the previous posts. Please, please, please research the facts around your politically motivated 'opinions' before posting.
skenney1384
Sun, Mar 21, 2010 : 11:40 a.m.
Thank you Hot Sam. Children are already covered. Dems are using this as another tug at the heart strings scare tactic. In theory Universal healthcare is great. In practice it doesn't work. I have 20 years experience studying healthcare policy and as an adminisrator. They need to start over and not force this through just because it has become Obama's obsession and wants to make a name for himself.
KarenH
Sun, Mar 21, 2010 : 11:35 a.m.
Beautiful letter. The misinterpretations and down-right lies from those opposing health reform are getting absurd, and deafening. We need to take this step now, despite the fact that it doesn't go far enough. It's shameful that there are as many children as there are in this country that have no health insurance and who suffer and die because of it. There are programs that currently exist to attempt to protect them, but we all know that they are only a drop in the bucket and don't cover many children at all. I want my taxes to cover these children. It's ironic that I see so much more right-wing anger about what this will cost us, than I ever heard in opposition to the billions we've spent fighting in Iraq. This health reform bill is necessary, and a good first step.
ummsw
Sun, Mar 21, 2010 : 11:28 a.m.
I would have to disagree with Hot Sam..not ALL children are covered under SCHIPS. That money is distributed to individual states via the US Government..It is up to the individual state you they choose to to apply it to state programs.. Currently we have MI Child,Healthy Kids and Medicaid..All are income based. If you don't fall below the poverty level you don't qualify...
stunhsif
Sun, Mar 21, 2010 : 10:20 a.m.
As always DonBee, well said, could not agree more. I am certain the company I work for will drop our insurance and put us on the government plan. Just look at how lousy customer service is at the Secretary Of State when you go to renew your license or renew the plates for your cars,imagine them doing this with healthcare!
DonBee
Sun, Mar 21, 2010 : 8:52 a.m.
With all the special deals in the plan, Michigan will pay more in taxes and get nothing for 4 years in return. Yes, the taxes on health care plans (except for union run ones) and other items start in year 1, and the benefits of the program start in 2014. So it is like buying a car, where you start paying now and in 4 years they let you drive it. Several new agencies are going to be setup, more than several actually. It is 2700 pages that was not fun to read at all. It feels like about 40 different people wrote it, all without knowing what the others were writing. It make generics for several classes of medicine harder to get and protects brand name medicines for 12 years not the current 7 for those same classes of medicine. That will mean an extra 5 years of higher cost medicine. It has a panel to decide which treatments insurance should not pay for, because they are not cost effective, and for who is a good candidate for those treatments. It does not tax union health care plans for a decade, but it does non-union ones that are "expensive" - given this, anyone who is non-union and works in a high-risk job or has a high percentage of young women in their workforce will see taxes on the employer health plans, so employers have only a couple of options - pay the tax, push the cost to the employees or drop health care. Most that I have talked too will drop the health care - not what this bill originally set out to do. Hospitals with the lowest mortality (death) rates will get more money from the government, so hospitals like the UofM which handle the sickest patients will see a drop in reimbursement rates, that will mean that some hospitals will look to move their sickest patients out of the hospital before they die. In general I support health care reform, but this bill is not it. The negatives will all start this summer, the benefits all start in 2014, I hope you can wait 4 years to drive your car.
Hot Sam
Sun, Mar 21, 2010 : 7:28 a.m.
Children already have health care...it's called the SCHIPS program...all children are covered...
SonnyDog09
Sun, Mar 21, 2010 : 6:52 a.m.
Let's look at the numbers. According to a recent Rasmussen poll, 53% of Americans are opposed to this health care reform plan. 57% think that the plan will hurt the economy. 55% want the plan scrapped and and want to start over. But, we're going to do it anyway, because the dear leader and his followers know what is best for us. "Those who know what's best for us, must rise and save us from ourselves." - Rush from the song Witch Hunt
Alan Caldwell
Sun, Mar 21, 2010 : 6:47 a.m.
Thank you Dr. Patrick for speaking out. Hopefully we'll have good news for the country later today.