HCCD Report California 92131

Discussion Group Moderator: Paulette
Date of Discussion Group: Sunday, December 28, 2008
Location of Discussion Group: Home of Paulette, San Diego, CA

18 people attended.

We reached a general agreement that a BASIC, universal health care plan should be available to all Americans. We agreed that this basic plan should include pre-natal care,

preventative screening tests/procedures, and educational outreach. We did not go into the details of how the plan  would be paid for or administered. We did not go into the details of which doctors/hospitals would be available on such a plan.

We agreed that this BASIC universal plan would serve as a safety net for people who can’t  afford private insurance company rates (including  the 45 million Americans who currently don’t have insurance) and for  people who can’t get insurance due to pre-existing conditions.

We agreed that if someone wanted a more comprehensive plan than the BASIC universal health care plan offered by the government, they could purchase it on their own from any one of the many insurance companies that offer health insurance.

Another idea was to allow Americans  under age 65 to buy into the MEDICARE plan.

STORIES:

a)      One woman aged 61 doesn’t have health insurance. She can’t afford it due to pre-existing conditions. Since she needs medical care she crosses the border into Tijuana and sees a medical doctor there at a significantly  reduced cost.

b)      A woman aged 51 shared that after her husband lost his job the cost of COBRA was $1200/month. Unemployment was paying much less. Medical insurance became unaffordable for them.

c)      One man aged 45 shared that the cost of medical insurance was significantly shrinking his paycheck. He wondered why he bothered to work.

d)     Stories were shared about people who were on MEDI-CAID or MEDI-CAL: apparently they are able to get free hospitalization and free medical care for their needs. Attendees had various opinions about that.

We discussed the cost of medical treatment by doctors, the cost of hospitalization, and the cost of tests/procedures. We learned that there was often a CASH PRICE  and an INSURANCE PRICE for various services/procedures/tests. The CASH PRICE was often less than the INSURANCE price. We suspected that this was due to the cost of employing people to do data entry/billing/collecting, etc. 

We discussed the importance of education. Americans should know about the importance of nutrition, exercise, etc. We thought that the government should sponsor public service announcements, educational billboards, and community oriented educational programs.

We thought that PE (physical education) should be put back into ALL schools and that it was important that health oriented education  begin in the elementary school.

One attendee suggested a tax on fast food items that didn’t meet minimum nutritional standards.

Everyone agreed that discussions like this were an important/useful vehicle for communicating with government.

There was some concern regarding the cost to the taxpayer for a BASIC universal plan, but everyone understood that somehow the government would have to offer this to Americans and as a country we would have to  find a way to pay for it.

The costs of Long Term Care were briefly addressed. Currently this cost is paid for individually or through private insurance.  As our population ages this will become a larger, costlier  concern.

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