Fred Clark: Wisconsin health care is worth fighting for
By: Health Insurance
Submitted: 2009-09-18 10:35:05 | Word Count: 807
The intense debate over health care reform this year reflects both what we know, and what we don’t know. We know the system we have is not working, and yet many of us are deeply concerned about the changes that could be required to fix it.
There has been much heated discussion about proposed health reform options. However the option that remains if no reform is adopted would be a "plan" for health care that will see health care costs double (again) between 2007 and 2017, an increasing number of Americans of all ages becoming un-insured or under-insured, medical bankruptcies continuing to affect more than 2 million Americans each year, and health care outcomes that would continue to decline as more and more Americans go without basic preventative care. This is exactly the situation we will face today in the United States if we continue business as usual.
[ advertisement ]
One idea that has caught fire with those opposed to any reform has been the fear that health care decisions, including end-of life decisions, would somehow be made by government bureaucrats, preventing patients, families, and their doctors from choosing treatment options or making critical decisions. In fact we already have such a system today, but the bureaucrats are employed by insurance companies, not the government.
Every credible proposal for health care reform in fact seeks to prevent the denial of care. In Wisconsin this year we’ve passed legislation to do just that, including ensuring adequate medical treatments for children with autism, requiring insurers to cover costs of cochlear implants, and limiting the ability of insurers to deny Wisconsin applicants because of pre-existing conditions.
In Wisconsin we are fortunate today to have many fewer citizens without insurance than the national average, partly as a result of progressive programs like Badger Care Plus, that provides coverage to qualifying families with children, and Badger Core that provides coverage to qualifying childless adults. This good news is little comfort however for those who do not qualify for these programs but are still facing unbearably large medical expenses without adequate coverage.
The current crisis in health care is even more acutely felt in small communities and rural areas. The economy in rural areas is dominated by small businesses, which are being forced to drop coverage at a faster rate than larger businesses, mainly due to rising costs. In addition, many rural residents work part-time, seasonally, or for themselves, making them even less likely to have private, employer-sponsored health care benefits.
So, whatever the outcome of health care reform legislation in Washington this year, we will have more work to do at home to assure that Wisconsin residents have access to health insurance AND access to doctors.
Even for those people with good insurance, the shortage of primary care doctors throughout Wisconsin results in fewer options available for families in accessing basic preventative health care. Although Sauk County is fortunate to have medical clinics and hospitals in all of our major communities, we still have a shortage of primary care physicians, and there are areas I represent where the shortage is even more acute.
So we need to do more to attract medical school graduates to leave the shiny lights of the big city and high-dollar medical specialties, to instead locate in rural areas to practice Family Medicine. One way is to help expand a one-of-a-kind program here in Baraboo that does just that. St. Clare Hospital’s Baraboo Family Medicine Residency Program brings newly-minted UW resident physicians here to experience life in a small town, and in a setting where they can get hands-on experience. This program works and we want to help other communities benefit from this simple idea.
Wisconsin has a health care system, including research universities, hospitals and clinics, and a network of practitioners, that we can be justifiably proud of. It is simply not acceptable that so many of our fellow Wisconsinites do not have access to that system – either because of lack of insurance, or the lack of qualified providers.
That is why I will be working at the state level to help increase the availability of primary care medicine, and to ensure that all Wisconsin citizens have access to health coverage.
Author Resource:-
Quoting and Saving on your health insurance has never been easier...EasyToInsureME
EasyToInsureME offers clients the easiest way to buy individual health insurance. Free services include instant online health insurance quotes, custom proposals for each client, free phone consultations, and 10-minute application by phone. Nobody does what we do for our clients!
