Health-care forum focuses on reforms
By MIKE DENNISON - IR State Bureau - 10/25/07
Potential fixes for the nation’s ailing health-care system will get a full airing in Helena next week, as more than 200 people gather for a forum that features reformers from across the country.
The organizer of the Montana Healthcare Forum is Montana Blue Cross/Blue Shield, the state’s largest seller of health insurance.
“We decided we needed to engage all of the stakeholders and get everyone together, and find a group who’s going to work on health care going forward,” says Blue Cross spokeswoman Linda McGillen.
“We hope it will generate ideas on what else has happened in the country, to give people a good idea of what might be worth a more in-depth look here,” she adds.
Toward that end, Blue Cross and forum sponsors have lined up two dozen speakers, including many with national credentials.
The speakers include health insurance officials, health policy researchers, consumer-oriented groups involved in reforms in other states, and state officials. Insurance Commissioner John Morrison is the only statewide elected official on the agenda. Gov. Brian Schweitzer was invited, but declined, citing a scheduling conflict. He’ll be traveling in Alberta next week, meeting with Canadian officials on energy issues.
The two-day forum opens Monday at the Great Northern Hotel, at a cost of $200 per person. Government officials and officeholders pay $100.
McGillen says the conference is not geared toward the general public, but rather toward those who make decisions about health care and health-care policy: Hospital administrators, physicians, large employers and insurance companies.
The forum sponsors, which paid anywhere from $1,000 to $7,500 to help cover the cost of the conference, include the state’s major hospitals, health-insurance lobbies and companies, other health-care businesses and MEA-MFT, a union representing thousands of school and government workers.
St. Peter’s Hospital in Helena, one of six hospital sponsors of the forum, believes it’s “a great opportunity” to learn more about health issues on the national level and to jump-start discussions about better access to health care, said hospital spokeswoman Peggy Stebbins.
Nearly one-fifth of Montanans and 47 million people nationwide are without insurance. Montana has one of the highest rates of uninsured people in the nation.
While the forum features many speakers on health-care reform, the agenda is heavy on those who are pushing “market-oriented” reforms, which means expanding private health insurance.
For example, the line-up includes Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, a major lobby group for private insurance, and Charles Kolb of the Committee for Economic Development, a group that believes employer-based health insurance should be phased out, leaving individuals to buy health insurance.
The agenda features no one who is an advocate of a publicly funded, single-payer health-care system, where the government guarantees a level of care for everyone and funds it with tax dollars.
Countries that have publicly funded systems include Canada and Great Britain.
Sen. Christine Kaufmann, D-Helena, an outspoken proponent of a single-payer system, said any reform discussion should ask whether the country wants to continue with private health insurance.
“We have to be looking at other options that are much broader than what we’re going to be hearing at this conference,” she says. “We have to be supporting health-care access, and forget about propping up an (insurance) industry.”
The forum does feature speakers from prominent groups that look at health reforms from a consumer perspective, such as The Commonwealth Fund from New York and Health Care for All from Massachusetts.
Still, both groups believe a mix of private health insurance and publicly funded or subsidized health insurance is the solution to reducing the number of uninsured people. Neither has endorsed a single-payer system.
“(Our) organization supports universal health-care coverage to provide comprehensive, affordable care,” says Jean Leu, communications manager for Health Care for All. “Single-payer is one way to achieve that, but it’s not a feasible solution for Massachusetts.”
The organizer of the Montana Healthcare Forum is Montana Blue Cross/Blue Shield, the state’s largest seller of health insurance.
“We decided we needed to engage all of the stakeholders and get everyone together, and find a group who’s going to work on health care going forward,” says Blue Cross spokeswoman Linda McGillen.
“We hope it will generate ideas on what else has happened in the country, to give people a good idea of what might be worth a more in-depth look here,” she adds.
Toward that end, Blue Cross and forum sponsors have lined up two dozen speakers, including many with national credentials.
The speakers include health insurance officials, health policy researchers, consumer-oriented groups involved in reforms in other states, and state officials. Insurance Commissioner John Morrison is the only statewide elected official on the agenda. Gov. Brian Schweitzer was invited, but declined, citing a scheduling conflict. He’ll be traveling in Alberta next week, meeting with Canadian officials on energy issues.
The two-day forum opens Monday at the Great Northern Hotel, at a cost of $200 per person. Government officials and officeholders pay $100.
McGillen says the conference is not geared toward the general public, but rather toward those who make decisions about health care and health-care policy: Hospital administrators, physicians, large employers and insurance companies.
The forum sponsors, which paid anywhere from $1,000 to $7,500 to help cover the cost of the conference, include the state’s major hospitals, health-insurance lobbies and companies, other health-care businesses and MEA-MFT, a union representing thousands of school and government workers.
St. Peter’s Hospital in Helena, one of six hospital sponsors of the forum, believes it’s “a great opportunity” to learn more about health issues on the national level and to jump-start discussions about better access to health care, said hospital spokeswoman Peggy Stebbins.
Nearly one-fifth of Montanans and 47 million people nationwide are without insurance. Montana has one of the highest rates of uninsured people in the nation.
While the forum features many speakers on health-care reform, the agenda is heavy on those who are pushing “market-oriented” reforms, which means expanding private health insurance.
For example, the line-up includes Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, a major lobby group for private insurance, and Charles Kolb of the Committee for Economic Development, a group that believes employer-based health insurance should be phased out, leaving individuals to buy health insurance.
The agenda features no one who is an advocate of a publicly funded, single-payer health-care system, where the government guarantees a level of care for everyone and funds it with tax dollars.
Countries that have publicly funded systems include Canada and Great Britain.
Sen. Christine Kaufmann, D-Helena, an outspoken proponent of a single-payer system, said any reform discussion should ask whether the country wants to continue with private health insurance.
“We have to be looking at other options that are much broader than what we’re going to be hearing at this conference,” she says. “We have to be supporting health-care access, and forget about propping up an (insurance) industry.”
The forum does feature speakers from prominent groups that look at health reforms from a consumer perspective, such as The Commonwealth Fund from New York and Health Care for All from Massachusetts.
Still, both groups believe a mix of private health insurance and publicly funded or subsidized health insurance is the solution to reducing the number of uninsured people. Neither has endorsed a single-payer system.
“(Our) organization supports universal health-care coverage to provide comprehensive, affordable care,” says Jean Leu, communications manager for Health Care for All. “Single-payer is one way to achieve that, but it’s not a feasible solution for Massachusetts.”
Current rating: 3.3 with 3 ratings.
Click here to register
Reader Comments:
drcoles wrote on Oct 25, 2007 10:11 AM:
" The government caused the problem with health care in America by over socializing medicine to the extent it is not completive, and we want to exacerbate the problem? U.S. Capitalism refers to an economic system in which the means of production are all owned and operated for profit, and in which investments, distribution, income, production and pricing of goods and services are determined through the operation of a market economy. It is the right of individuals and groups of individuals acting as "legal persons" or corporations to trade capital goods, labor, land and money (see finance and credit). See http://www.InteliOrg.com/ "
Blacklist1 wrote on Oct 25, 2007 10:02 AM:
" Once again, the entities which are responsible for the health care "crisis" are the ones leading the debate on how to fix the problem. People need health care, not health insurance. Elimination of the private for profit "nonprofit" health insurance industry would save $350 billion a year and not effect the health care delivery system at all.
The primary problem is cost. To lower cost, you cut out the middleman and have government financed health care. Everything else is just a smoke screen to protect the profit margin of the insurance industry, including expansion of entitlement programs like CHIP which is nothing more than a hidden tax on people who actually pay for their health care. CHIP reimburses providers and hospitals below the actual cost of delivering care...therefore those expenses are passed along to the guy who pays his bill. "
Share Article
hms676ky wrote on Oct 26, 2007 11:41 AM: