Health care activists have suggestions for new president
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By DANIEL BARLOW Vermont Press Bureau - Published: December 31, 2008
MONTPELIER — President-elect Barack Obama wants to know what health-care reforms his new administration should consider — and Vermonters are eager to tell him.
For weeks, health care activists have met in homes, churches and community centers to discuss possible health-care initiatives for the Democrat, who has been soliciting advice and ideas via his Change.gov Web site.
More than 1,000 health-care meetings have been scheduled during the weeks before Obama is sworn in as the 44th president, and at least a half-dozen have already been held in Vermont, with a handful more planned this week and next.
"This is a great opportunity for people to come out and help shape health-care reform under an Obama administration," explained Richard Davis, executive director of the Vermont Citizens Campaign for Health and the moderator of an Obama transition team health-care meeting in Guilford on Monday night.
Health-care advocates have high hopes for the Obama administration.
It is very likely that Obama's administration will dedicate more federal funds for programs such as Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, more commonly known as SCHIP.
Many also see his appointment of former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle as secretary of Health and Human Services and as the director of the newly created White House Office on Health Reform as a sign that major changes could be on the way.
Davis said he is encouraged by signs that the Obama administration may embrace community health care ratings, dropping pre-existing conditions exclusions and allowing more people to buy into government-sponsored health insurance plans, such as Medicare.
"I don't think we are going to see major changes, but we will see progress," Davis said. "And if these things do happen, it will be monumental."
Deb Richter, a Montpelier doctor with a family practice in Cambridge, said there are a lot of problems with health care nationally that Obama needs to tackle, starting with the number of people uninsured or who have insurance that doesn't cover all their health needs.
She has scheduled an Obama transition team health-care meeting for Montpelier on the evening of Tuesday, Jan. 6.
Richter cited a recent health survey that found that 42 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 65 are uninsured or underinsured as an example of one of the major problems facing health care today.
And problems will only get worse as the economy continues to slink downward, she said. But that may also open up new opportunities, she said, explaining that Obama's initial approach was implementing a program similar to Vermont's Catamount Health nationwide.
"Obama has stated that his preference would be a single-payer system if he were starting from scratch," Richter said. "Well, I think we'll be there soon. The sad fact is, the worse the economy gets, the better chance it is that we'll see some form of a single-payer health care system."
About 10 people gathered at Ellen Oxfeld's home in Middlebury on Dec. 22 — one day after a snowstorm cancelled the meeting scheduled for the previous day — to generate ideas for Obama's administration.
Oxfeld, a professor at Middlebury College, said materials, including questions to generate discussions and ideas, are supplied by Obama's administration — but also reveal a bias toward retaining a health care system based around the private insurance industry.
The fourth question on the list — "In addition to employer-based coverage, would the group like the option to purchase a private plan through an insurance-exchange or a public plan like Medicare?" — assumes that people want employer-based health care coverage, Oxfeld said.
"A lot of us don't want health care tied to employment," Oxfeld said. "They could have phrased the question in a different way."
The health care meetings also illuminate the personal stories of Vermonters struggling either with insurance or insurance that costs more than they can afford.
Davis said he received a letter from one Windham County couple nearing retirement explaining that of their annual combined income of $45,000, about $15,000 is spent solely on their health insurance.
"I don't think that is an atypical story," Davis said. "There are probably a lot of people out there in the same situation."
Contact Daniel Barlow at daniel.barlow@rutlandherald.com.
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