|
Forum Discusses Possible Solutions for Healthcare Horror |
| Wed April 11th, 2007 |
Central Connecticut State University News
By Melissa Traynor
News Editor
In a combination of healthcare “horror” stories, input by physicians and responses by state legislators, a forum last Thursday addressed areas of concern and possible solutions, including universal healthcare.
Carissa Sfakios of the Social Work Program organized the event which state representatives John C. Geragosian and state senator Donald J. DeFronzo attended. The event was moderated by Steve Karp who is the Executive Director of the National Association of Social workers of Connecticut.
Dr. Stephen H. Grund, oncologist/ hematologist from the Hospital of Central Connecticut, represented the medical community.
Grund spoke out against six key problems with the existing U.S. healthcare system and the patients it provides for. He began by saying that medical care is too expensive, too fragmented and too many patients don’t have adequate access to healthcare.
He alluded to a situation in which a 22-year-old patient had a mass in his abdomen and had no healthcare insurance, even though he was working fulltime. Grund said that the doctors in town would not see the young man because he didn’t have insurance, and by the time he came to Grund, the mass had developed into testicular cancer.
“No one would take these patients; Americans, working, trying to work, upstanding citizens. It made me sick,” Grund said. “It made me ask, like you are doing today, what happened? Why did it happen? What can we do about it?”Maggie Meehan, a senior from the Social Work Program at CCSU, had gone through fits of pneumonia and bronchitis while attending school and had no coverage for doctor’s visits and medications. Luckily, she said, she was able to pay for insurance through the school and received some form of discounted medical care.
She added that she is worried for the time after July 31, 2007 because she does not know how or if she will be able to receive coverage when the school’s insurance expires.
State Rep. Geragosian spoke first on the behalf of legislators. “We need to change the dynamics of the healthcare system to a preventative model,” he said. He also suggested that the United States search for new forms of healthcare, not excluding a single-payer option.
Single-payer health insurance is a system by which the healthcare expenditures of an entire population are paid for through a single source, which can be the Federal government or a subcontracting entity using tax revenue from individuals and employers.
Sen. DeFronzo mentioned Senate President Donald Williams’ ‘Connecticut Health First Initiative.’
“I think there’s reasonable optimism for something to happen this year,” DeFronzo said, “This bill has garnered support on a bipartisan basis.”
He explained that the legislation would not create and entire new system, but build on what is already in place. It would raise the maximum age for a person to have coverage under his or her parents’ insurance, raise the income limit on the Husky program and possibly allow greater coverage from the SAGA health insurance plan.
The proposed plan is estimated to bring 140,000 people out of the 350,000 people in the state who do not have health insurance.
“There is good news in healthcare,” DeFronzo said. “There seems to be a real focus on reform and bringing up new proposals to fix the system.”
Copyright © 2002, The Recorder | All Rights Reserved
|
|
|
