BY ROBIN BIESEN
Times Staff Writer
An increasing need for health care and an inability by government and employers to keep pace with spiraling medical costs has state Sen. Vi Simpson calling for change.
In place of the current system, Simpson, an announced candidate for Indiana governor next year, is calling on state leaders to come together to explore the notion of universal health care for Indiana.
While not a new idea — Sen. Evan Bayh floated the idea while he was governor and the Clinton administration backed it in a failed proposal to reform the nation’s health care system — Simpson said it is time to explore the issue anew.
“We are at a point when fewer small businesses can afford to offer health insurance,” Simpson, D-Bloomington, said. “What we need to do is look for an approach to pay for health care that is the most effective and cost efficient.”
She won’t get an argument from Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary.
Brown, who has been delving into the costs and benefits of a single-payer system, said the state has to get its arms around health care costs — for the sake of the people it insures and that of employers who find themselves strapped by annual increases that eclipse profits.
“Eventually we all pay for health care for those who seek it, whether they have insurance or not,” Brown said. “Deciding that everyone should have health insurance could help control costs. It’s a pay me now or pay me later situation.
Small-business owners, who have become accustomed to skyrocketing employee health insurance premiums, say it would be nice to think there could be less costly options.
“I would say that over the last three or four years, we have seen annual increases of 30 percent — minimum,” said Howard Weiss, owner of Trim-A-Seal of Indiana Inc., a window manufacturing and installation firm that employs 11. “Small-business owners are at a complete disadvantage. But, it’s not only the business owner who suffers. The individual employee suffers as much, if not more, than the company because they, too, are being asked to pay more for health care.”
Like Weiss, Larry Gough, of Gough & Gough Inc. of Valparaiso, was intrigued at the idea of a single-payer system for Indiana.
“I think it sounds good, in theory, because ultimately their buying power would be so much greater than any individual corporation on its own,” Gough said. “Spreading the risk should mean you would be able to insure a larger group at less cost. I would love to see it work.”
Daniel Lowery, executive director of Northwest Indiana Quality of Life Council, said health care was just put back on the nation’s public policy initiative list for the first time since the early 1990s.
“The reason is, the current situation is not sustainable,” he said. “It can’t work.”
Northwest Indiana’s steel industry has been hampered not only by capacity issues and dumping, but also by legacy costs it bears for retirees, Lowery said.
“We don’t spread health care costs across the entire population, like other countries do, so it’s affected our competitiveness in steel,” he said.
The current system is a drag on overall economic performance, he said.
“People stay in jobs because they don’t want to lose their insurance when they might be productive somewhere else,” Lowery said. “Others can’t be hired over a fear of what their hiring might do to insurance costs.”
Thomas McDermott, president and chief executive of Northwest Indiana Forum Inc., said businesses — especially those in Lake County — are saying they can’t afford their property taxes and health care.
“If the situation isn’t corrected, I think we’ll begin to see health care looked at as the option they drop before they go out of business,” McDermott said.
One national solution to the “health care fiasco” involves a proposal to mandate companies provide health coverage for their employees and give them a tax credit for doing so, McDermott said. The idea has merit, he said.
“If one company provides insurance, and the other does not, they’re put at a competitive disadvantage. You need to create a balanced playing field.”
Times staff writer Debra Gruszecki contributed to this story.
Robin Biesen can be reached at biesen@nwitimes.com or (219) 933-4168.
http://www.thetimesonline.com/articles/2003/05/05/news/top_news/2e5f720b8707982c86256d1d000c343a.txt