HEALTH CARE REFORM BREAKTHROUGH!
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Oct. 30, 2001
"Threats expose health care problems"
By Jamie Court, Executive Director of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, Kay McVay, President of the California Nurses Association, and Steve Thompson, Vice-President of the California Medical Association
"Employers believed that HMO control over medicine would reduce costs. Instead, employers have been bedeviled by the twin vices of double digit premium increases and increasing gripes from employees about obstacles to medical care. Employers concerned about the welfare of their employees face a market that allows them diminishing options for coverage, all gravitating to the lowest common denominator, and ever-increasing costs with no end in sight.
"In a deepening recession, businesses have been forced either to shift more or all of the payment burdens to their employees, making their companies less competitive and their employees more vulnerable, or have health care costs eat up their profits. Those businesses that cannot afford coverage will have far more concern for their workers' health in the post-Sept. 11 world than ever before."
"The time has come for employers to join physicians, nurses, hospitals and patient advocates in creating a model for health care that does not pit the private health care system against the public health system, but brings them together in a more rational way.
"The needs of the nation today demand better public controls over private health care delivery and dollars, both of which have run amok in recent years. Such public oversight over private health care could better direct resources to those in need, be they uninsured, underinsured or innocent victims of a terrorist attack. The irony is that such genuine public management of care and cost would save money. Preventing illness is the most cost effective way to treat it, and today's mismanaged system has failed miserably on this account as well.
"Our groups have reached out to corporations with an employer survey (<http://www.businesshealthsurvey.org>http://www.businesshealthsurvey.org) that seeks businesses' views on health care. If any good in health care is to come from the rubble of Sept. 11, it will only happen when employers, doctors, nurses, patients and hospitals come together to make it happen."
For the full article: <http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sandiego/index.html>http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sandiego/index.html (enter title, Threats expose health care problems, into the search box)
Comment: To understand the significance of this breakthrough in the health care reform movement, you must visit the website listed above: <http://www.businesshealthsurvey.org>http://www.businesshealthsurvey.org. This is a cooperative effort of the American Small Business Alliance, the California Nurses Association, the California Medical Association, and the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights. These are mainstream organizations representing business, consumers, nurses and physicians.
Perhaps the most important item on the website is the fact sheet, "Why Businesses Should Care About Universal Health Care." Business owners do care. The fact sheet provides them with a rational basis for reform that will assure the health security of their employees, while providing significant benefits for the employers themselves. This page should be downloaded and distributed widely to business interests. It is available at: <http://www.businesshealthsurvey.org/factsheet1.html>http://www.businesshealthsurvey.org/factsheet1.html