By Nancy Remsen
Burlington Free Press
March 15, 2009
For 90 minutes Tuesday afternoon, 400 people will vie for time to share an idea or concern they have about health care during the second of five regional health reform forums sponsored by the Obama White House.
Critics say that’s hardly sufficient time to take the public’s pulse on health reform. Some will rally outside the Davis Center at the University of Vermont, where the forum takes place, to demonstrate support for publicly financed health care. It’s an idea they say is getting short shrift from President Barack Obama as he assembles a health reform plan.
Others say this forum signals the president’s new approach to developing health reform policy and a recognition that Vermont is home to some good reform ideas.
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“He is reaching out to states and regions that have something to offer,” said Republican Gov. Jim Douglas, who will co-host the forum with Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat from Massachusetts. The first forum was held last week in Michigan. Others are planned in Iowa, California and North Carolina.
Greg Marchildon, state director of AARP in Vermont, is among the 400 people invited to attend.
“Of all of the five, this one matters most,” he said, “because Vermont, Massachusetts and Maine are where things have been done over the past 10 years.”
Marchildon lists Vermont’s accomplishments in chronic-care management, progress toward development of an electronic network for medical information and creation of Catamount Health, which showed how to subsidize private health insurance and expand coverage to more uninsured people.
“Vermont is an unquestioned national leader,” Marchildon said. “Some very important components of what Vermont has done are getting close attention from the Obama administration and in Congress.”
Dr. Deb Richter of Montpelier, a family practice physician and advocate for a publicly financed health care system, has also been invited. She’ll go in, but first will join the rally outside.
“I’ll bring the message from the people outside,” she said. “Our intent is to show the amount of support for publicly financed health care.”
While single-payer advocates such as Richter have been invited to this and other forums, she said White House officials have indicated a total overhaul of the health care financing system they advocate isn’t under consideration.
“We want this discussed as a serious option,” Richter said. “This problem is too big for small fixes.”
Another forum participant, Dr. Paul Jarris, warns, “If we try to go for the perfect, we will end up with nothing.” Jarris is a former commissioner of health in Vermont who now serves as executive director of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials in Washington, D.C. “Let’s just do something.”
“Obama is bringing people around the table and saying there are many good ideas. Let’s see what is achievable,” Jarris explained. He contrasted this with the Clinton administration’s decision to roll out a completed plan. “It is a fundamentally different approach and far more likely to succeed,” Jarris said.
Before leaving Vermont in 2006, Jarris helped launch the Blueprint for Health, one of the programs attracting national attention. The Blueprint focuses on promoting public health through means as diverse as advocating for walking paths, teaching patients how to stay well and manage illnesses, and transforming medical practices so doctors focus more on prevention rather than after-the-fact treatment.
Jarris said he met Friday with Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform, who will attend Tuesday’s forum in Burlington. “She is very interested in the Blueprint and how to make it a national model.”
The Douglas administration sees the forum as the start of a national health reform conversation. Douglas said he would have a chance to share more details about Vermont’s successes in April when he and other forum hosts meet to report on the proceedings.
Douglas noted he has already had conversations with Obama about the president’s health reform concerns and areas of interest. “I really think what we have in place here is quite consistent with his goals,” Douglas said.
Contact Nancy Remsen at 578-5685 or nremsen@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com. To get Free Press headlines delivered free to your e-mail, sign up at www.burlingtonfreepress.com/newsletters