Small Town News

Lewes forum aims to cure healthcare

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Insurance ills sicken America

The already steep and constantly rising cost of health insurance and healthcare is generating anguish, anger, fear and frustration.

There's significant confusion and conflict over how to cure a system that's been chronically ill for decades.

The debate over what to do about out-of-control health insurance and healthcare costs, which has broken out into a national epidemic of discussions, spread to Lewes, Thursday, Aug. 13.

More than 250 people filled Lewes Presbyterian Church's Fellowship Hall to hear and in a limited way participate in a forum featuring a panel of physicians, healthcare administrators and patients.

The Delaware Small Business Health Care Coalition and the Cape Gazette cosponsored the forum.

"We're here looking for answers just as you are," said John Mateyko, a coalition member and forum moderator.

From the outset Mateyko explained that the forum was an open meeting of The Delaware Small Business Health Care Coalition (DSBHCC) and was not a forum at which the public would be allowed to voice opinions.

Attendees were asked to complete an audience survey asking about the type of health insurance coverage they have and the main areas needing improvement - cost of coverage, quality of services, drug prices, out-of-pocket expenses and so on.

Each person was given a blank index card on which to submit questions.

Panelists included Jeffrey Fried, president and CEO of Beebe Medical Center in Lewes and Steven Rose, president and CEO of Nanticoke Memorial Hospital in Seaford.

Fried said for two decades hospital administrators have been aware of conflict in the present system of "sick care" where hospitals are paid to treat patients and discharge them as quickly as possible and not have them return. Doctors, on the other hand, are paid more when patients have longer hospital stays and return for further treatment.

"It should be quality over quantity, value over volume," Fried said. He said America's present healthcare system isn't affordable nor is it sustainable.

Fried said medical service costs increased by 140 percent during the past four-year period. He said Medicare Part A, which covers qualified individuals 65 and older, is rapidly running out of money and by 2016, will go broke.

Fried said the Social Security Administration has looked at whether a tax increase could breathe additional life into Medicare, but the hike would have to be as much as 300 percent to extend the program to 2040.

He said by 2023, Medicare's trust fund would be $600 billion in the red.

Fried said what's not behind those numbers is the population that once was. Fried said there are also tremendous variations in the cost of services across the country.

Also driving up the cost of healthcare are companies that manufacture pharmaceuticals, Fried said. To give some perspective, he said, profits gleaned by the top 10 pharmaceutical companies exceed that of all other Fortune 500 companies combined.

Nanticoke's Rose said America's healthcare system is in crisis and without proper intervention will continue to decline.

"Now, for the first time, children won't have the life expectancy of their parents," Rose said.

"We always talk about the money, but we've got to look at the care side, and we need to look at tort reform in this country," he said, the comment drawing enthusiastic applause.

Rose is today a hospital administrator, but said he knows about the hands-on care quality healthcare requires. He's also a registered nurse and a nurse practioner.

He said the country is facing not only a shortage of skilled nurses but also a shortage of family practice and general practice doctors.

"The number of people who are going to heed care is growing," Rose said. He said many physician hospital residencies go unfilled, and it's been years since any new medical school has opened.

"Make sure elected officials know what you want. We have to have the voice of the patient to make that reform," Rose said.

Dr. Jo Ann Fields, a primary care physician who has practiced in the Dover-Felton area for 13 years, said a public-option plan would lower healthcare costs and provide coverage that couldn't be revoked.

Fields said as a doctor operating a small business, and as a medical service consumer - she's a 10-year cancer survivor - she thinks a taxpayer-supported public-option plan is the best model on which to base a national health insurance program.

"It would give competition to the Wall Street providers," she said. Fields said the public-option plan would be open to those under age 65. A new government-operated insurance exchange agency would regulate and operate it. Participating employers would receive group rates.

"You could still buy a public or private plan," Fields said. .





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