Forum on health care reform Jan. 31
The Daily Press
Wednesday, January 26th, 2005
Affordability and access still present huge barriers to adequate health care in the United States. Health care costs rose seven times the rate of inflation in 2003. The number of uninsured Americans continued to rise in 2004.
In an effort to move Chequamegon Bay area communities toward greater consensus around how to resolve our health care crisis, the Ashland/Bayfield League of Women Voters will host a series of forums.
The first forum “Incremental Reform or a Single Payer System?” will be held on Monday, Jan. 31 from 7-9 p.m. at the Northern Great Lakes Visitors Center.
A second forum is being organized for February or early March which will feature a “Town Hall Meeting” format with Wisconsin Legislators who are sponsoring health care reform bills.
Presenting the position for incremental reform at the January 31 Forum will be Ed Scheider, a retired insurance executive (Madison) and President of Larson, Burns and Scheider Insurance in Ashland.
Advocating for the single payer system will be Dr. Ed Ehlinger, Director and Chief Health Officer at the Boynton Health Service, University of Minnesota. These presentations will be followed by a response panel comprised of:
• Dr. Mark Belknap, Duluth Clinic-Ashland and President-elect of the Wisconsin Medical Society
• Wayne Corey, Executive Director of WI Independent Businesses in Madison
• Dan Hymans, CEO of Memorial Medical Center
• Tracy Suprise, RN at UW Hospital in Madison and an organizer with the Service Employees International Union Universal access to high quality health care at an affordable cost has been a long standing goal for local and national LWV study and action.
Reforming health care is critical to addressing three major social and economic stresses:
1) the employer cost of health insurance is becoming a serious drag on America’s business competitiveness and on the cost of publicly funded services;
2) health care bills are now the leading cause of personal and family bankruptcies with their ripple effect on local economies; and
3) high deductibles, co-pays and lack of insurance is driving the American public to forego preventive health care and delay treatment of chronic conditions and diseases.
Since health care reform bills will be introduced in both the Wisconsin and Minnesota Legislatures this year, the Ashland/Bayfield League of Women Voters feels that it is timely to once again bring before local citizens information about action that can be taken to resolve the problems in our health care system.
These forums are funded in part with a grant from the Wirtanen Family Fund of the Duluth-Superior Area community Foundation.
For further information contact Linda Jorgenson at (h) 373-2948 or (w) 682-7171.
