Iowans turn out to share ideas for health care reform

DES MOINES - Health care providers, politicians and everyday Iowans stressed the need for reform of the country's health care system and pitched in their ideas during a White House-sponsored forum in Des Moines Monday.The town hall-style event was one of five around the country and featured Nancy-Ann DeParle, who's leading the Obama administration's health care reform efforts.

A video message from President Obama pledging to make health care reform a top priority of his administration kicked off the event.

"The crushing cost of health care is battering businesses, squeezing our states and increasingly imperiling our own budget and threatening our long-term prosperity," Obama said on the video.

American families are also seeing the impact with health insurance premiums doubling over the past eight years, he said.

"Health reform cannot wait another year, and together we can ensure that all Americans have quality affordable health care," Obama said.

Phyllis Ewing of West Des Moines knows the difficulty of finding affordable health coverage firsthand.

Over the past 10 years, her family has been left without coverage due to layoffs of both her and her husband. They found the cost of purchasing COBRA health care insurance prohibitive.

"We could have had COBRA or we could have had a house to live in," Ewing said.

They also were left with $22,000 in medical bills because of her 5-day hospital stay after her husband lost his job.

Ewing said she's been listening to politicians calling for health care reform for 40 years, and came to the forum to learn more about what Obama's administration is proposing.

"I think it's absolutely the core issue in our country right now," Ewing said.

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Cumming, stressed the need to move from a "sick care" system to one that emphasizes wellness and prevention to keep people out of the hospital in the first place.

He said private health insurance plans, as well as government-run Medicaid and Medicare programs, must reimburse for preventive services such as annual physicals and mammograms. Harkin also is pushing the idea of extending tax incentives to workplaces that provide things such as smoking cessation and depression screening.

"It makes no sense just to figure out a better way to pay the bills for a system that is broken and unsustainable," Harkin said.

Darlene Neff, a retired school teacher from Iowa City, said basic health care should be affordable to everyone.

"It would make our companies more competitive and our workers more secure," she said.

Karen Van De Steeg, executive director of Heath Inc. in Sioux City, cited the local Siouxland PACE program as an example of how the government and the private sector can work together to provide care.

That home-based health care program for seniors is an alternative to nursing home care and focuses on prevention.

"We are providing some of the poorest, oldest, most frail people the absolute best care they could possibly get in their homes," Van De Steeg said.

South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds shared his state's move in 2003 to create a state pool for the uninsured, which he said has helped bring more insurance carriers into the state.

He also took the opportunity at the forum to criticize a federal program that provides health care to Native Americans, which he said makes people wait for care when the program runs out of money.

"If you want to see an absolute travesty, take a look at a government-run program called Indian Health (Service), because it's an embarrassment."

Rep. Linda Miller, R-Bettendorf, praised an idea touted by one doctor at the forum - high-deductible plans mostly for catastrophic care. She is in favor of personal responsibility and consumers having control over their health care dollars in health savings accounts.

"Not only does that keep from being tied to their jobs because of pre-existing conditions, it's your money," she said.

Retired nurse Donna Buckley of West Des Moines has also witnessed problems in the nation's health care system, especially as insurance companies make more rules with regard to care.

"I've known for a long time that there are a lot of tragic stories out there about people that can't afford health care," she said.

In a briefing with reporters after the forum, DeParle stressed that the Obama administration has just started working with Congress on formulating health care reforms that will lower costs and get everyone covered.

"There may be different approaches to dealing with it, but I think we all believe getting spiraling health care costs under control is part of a solution," she said.

The forum was not without controversy. One protestor was escorted out after shouting at Gov. Chet Culver as the forum began.