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Residents' Troubles Show A Need For Health Care Reform

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By RON HAMMERLE

Special to the Tribune

Published: January 7, 2009

VALRICO - A group of Brandon and Valrico residents met Dec. 20 at the Bloomingdale Regional Library for a public meeting to discuss health care reform.

The meeting was just one of hundreds held throughout the country in December to provide guidance to the Secretary-designate of Health and Human Services, Tom Daschle, as the new administration and Congress prepare to grapple with dozens of issues underlying a move toward health care reform.

A Brandon family of four at the meeting observed, "We are all just one serious illness away from ruin. If you become really ill, your employer will terminate you. Once your COBRA continuation health coverage runs out, you may find yourself uninsurable with no safety net because insurance companies only want to insure healthy people."

One young woman at the meeting said she was not able to secure health insurance at any cost, even though her only "pre-existing condition" was moderately high blood pressure.

A small business owner said he could no longer afford to buy health insurance for employees of his company.

Another man, who said he retired at age 57 with savings but no benefits, said, "I paid $12,000 a year for myself and my wife the first year after my company insurance ran out. This year, our premium will be $30,000."

The true-life stories of these Brandon area residents are representative of millions of Americans. Thanks to the community meeting in Valrico, their stories are now being told in Washington as a new administration faces the most difficult economic challenge since the Great Depression.

The opinions of two Brandon area physicians who attended the meeting may surprise some people.

An emergency-room physician from a family of 17 physicians said, "The whole system is broken. Simply providing health insurance for all will not eliminate the problem of access to and the cost of care."

An ophthalmologist with experience developing and managing a network of physicians said, "Our group saved an insurance company $3 million a year by providing efficient, quality care to our patients. When it was time for us to receive a contractual bonus for good care, we had to take the insurance company to court to collect."

The ophthalmologist offered a suggestion to train physicians older than 55 to help oversee how medicine is being practiced, based upon proven experience.

Most policy experts believe that fixing the national economy cannot be separated from addressing the problems involving health care.

Once a new Congress convenes, this issue is among the top five on the agenda.

MEET HAMMERLE

Ron Hammerle, a Valrico resident, moderated the public meeting about health care reform Dec. 20 at Bloomingdale Regional Public Library. He is a health care adviser, writer and speaker and has served as an adjunct faculty member and lecturer in graduate schools of medicine, business and pharmacy.

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