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CEDAR RAPIDS — For all practical purposes, the conservative forum on health care reform held in Iowa’s second-largest city last Tuesday might as well have been a C-SPAN replay of the frustrated talking points emanating from the congressional Republican caucus.
Dr. Mariannette Miller-Meeks speaks with an audience member following consumer-driven health care forum in Cedar Rapids where she was a panelist. (Iowa Independent photo)
Dr. Don Racheter, president of the Public Interest Institute, which hosted the event, painted a picture of where health care reform stands in Congress for the approximately 30 attendees. He focused in particular on the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee bill that was unveiled the same day as the forum, and on the continuing negotiations between U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.) on the Senate Finance Committee.
The largest point of contention between the two political parties, according to Racheter, is whether the reform efforts contain a public option.
While quoting from a study conducted by the Lewin Group, Racheter said that government entering into the health care insurance fray would be unfair.
“The government has deep pockets … they don’t have to worry about recessions, they don’t have to worry about layoffs and they don’t have to worry about everything a private company has to worry about,” Racheter said.
In addition, the implementation of a public health care insurance option, operated by the government, according to Racheter, would provide an incentive for employers to no longer offer insurance through private companies.
“The reality is that if a public option is a part of the equation, then [then-candidate Barack] Obama’s statement about people being able to choose whether or not they want to enroll in something new or keep their existing coverage is not probable,” Racheter said, arguing that the introduction of a public option will effectively dry up other currently available insurance. “The idea that you can keep what you’ve got if you like it just isn’t reality.”
Dr. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a former congressional candidate and Ottumwa ophthalmologist, spoke as a provider within the current health care delivery system and praised recent activities that have placed more competition within the system. She is also extremely leery of taking health care delivery out of a competitive market and placing it in the hands of government.
“If we are going to provide health care to everyone regardless of citizenship status, health care will have to be rationed,” she warned. “So, the question is, ‘Who do you want to ration your health care?’ … Just because we all have insurance is no guarantee that costs will go down. In fact, it may actually increase costs until we begin to ration.”
As evidence that government intervention results in a rationing of health care services, Miller-Meeks points to the recent appearance of ads in newspapers for $79 screening tests.
“Under Medicare, for me to order those same tests, I have to have a reason for doing so,” she said. “If you want it, I need to make-up a reason or you can’t have the test done. And, even if there was an indication and I ordered the tests, the charge would be around $600.”
Competition in the private marketplace, she said, is the key to lowering health care costs for the majority of Americans. This includes allowing individuals to buy coverage a la carte, picking and choosing the coverage needs they require, and making health care more portable.
The vast consensus of those attending the forum is that politicians — individuals described as being out-of-touch with the realities of average Americans — are contemplating comprehensive health care reform in this manner because they are interested in increasing their voting base. Further, even if the doomsday scenarios painted in conjunction with a public option come true, those in attendance believe it will be more than a decade later before ramifications begin to really impact politicians at the voting booth.
“If they go with a public option, there is no doubt that it will transition to single-payer health care,” Miller-Meeks said in answer to a question from the audience. “The current administration is extraordinarily intelligent. They know the full impact of similar policies took 29 years in Canada. So the full impact of what is now being discussed in our country won’t happen for at least 8 to 10 years. By that time a lot of the current politicians will have have already been transitioned out of office.”
If there was one glimmer of hope for those against a public option in health care reform it came in the fact that the Democratic majority in the nation’s capital appears so splintered.
“Looking at the numbers, the truth is that we could have health care reform passed next week,” Racheter said. “But I don’t think that is going to happen.”
He and others on the panel pointed to the Blue Dog Democrats and the Progressive Caucus as being two Democratic groups holding diametrically different opinions on what health care reform should be. The Progressive Caucus has vowed not to vote for reform that does not include a public option while the Blue Dogs have publicly voiced concerns over costs of nearly all options that have been discussed.
The Cedar Rapids forum was one of a three-part series hosted by the Public Interest Institute in cooperation with Patients United Now.
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