HCCD Report Oregon 97404

Group Composition

We had a lively and engaged group of ten people. Age range of 40 to 75 years, 4 males and 6 females. The group include 2 people on medicare with supplemental coverage, 3 had employer health care coverage, 1 person who is denied coverage for a pre-existing condition, 1 on the Oregon Health Plan because she has a life threatening illness and she needs the coverage to get medication for the illness, and 3 people who pay for their own health insurance.

Biggest Problems in Health Care

The group agrees that the biggest problem in health care is a combination of difficulty getting insurance because of pre-existing conditions since private, for profit corporations are the gatekeepers, along with the cost of insurance and health care. So cost of care and availability of insurance were the 2 primary concerns.

Group Consensus Points

1. The System. All people agreed that there are many parts of the health care system that are broken while the 2 on medicare say that system works for them and please don’t change it. We agreed that a single payer system would be good to move towards with a holistic version of medicare being a good model and where individuals could choose their own providers and broader types of medical services would be included such as acupuncture, chiropractic, nutritionist, massage when medically necessary, osteopathic, naturopathic, homeopathic. In this system we agree that doctors and insurers should use the same software to help reduce the overhead rather than the many software/computer systems that are now needed.

   People desire their own medical files to be accessible to them via internet.

   The internet could also be used for a community feedback system to rate doctors and insurers on their care/service, similar to Angie’s list which is used in communities to rate service providers and alert others to the praises or problems with the companies they do business with. Perhaps the feedback system could be used as incentives for the doctors, hospitals and insurers tying it into compensation.

   Our group feels that it is morally reprehensible that so many Americans are either denied healthcare insurance or that the cost is too high to bear for too many, when other countries are better able to provide for their own as well as visitors.

2. Prevention. The group agreed that nutrition was an important component of improving healthcare, both in education of children, parents and more extensive mandatory nutrition education for doctors. A nutritionist in the group noted that doctors do not question her on vitamin deficiencies as related to her symptoms when she is aware that that such a connection could exist because of food allergies. Additionally the group would like mandatory nutritional and calorie information on fast foods and they request that genetically modified ingredients in foods be disclosed.
3. Tort Reform. The group agreed that there should be tort reform to address medical malpractice and its impact on medical costs. The group opposes a cap on malpractice payment because in some cases of lifelong disability higher payments may be necessary, but there could be a board that oversees the malpractice cases and tosses out the ones that have no merit.
4. Pharmaceuticals. The group agrees that there should be limits on advertising, lobbying and incentives offered to doctors by pharmaceutical companies for promoting their products.
5. Increase Nursing Education. The group recognizes that there is a need for educating more nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants and we support the funding for such educational programs. There was also an awareness expressed about high obesity rate in the nursing staff at our new local hospital. Medical practitioners should be good role models for patients.

Additional Ideas

1. Diagnostic Tool. A database where a healthcare provider could type in symptoms and get perspective from many modalities to help make a diagnosis could help a patient get the care they need faster. The database could contain diagnostic information from western medicine, physical therapy, chiropractic, osteopathic, naturopathic, acupuncture, nutrition, massage and other modalities to help the diagnostician think outside the box of their specialty since “the box” can create tunnel vision. One person mentioned many doctor and physical therapy visits post surgery that were seemingly wasted until trigger points were mentioned as a cause of the dysfunction after 3 years of doctors and physical therapists missing the mark.
2. More Abundant Healthy Food. Instead of paying farmers not to grow crops that the money could be used to assist organic farms, community gardens and even education for individuals for growing their own food. Healthy accessible food creates healthy lifestyles and lower health care costs. There was unanimous opposition to the current system of farm subsidies.
3. Lifestyle Choices. The group recognizes that lifestyle choices are at the root of many maladies and would like to see a combination of top down and bottom up solutions to this. It was not clear to the group what the best approach would be on this, whether there would be a monetary incentive in better rates for those who decrease weight, decrease blood pressure, decrease cholesterol (unless it’s genetic), quit smoking, or should it be more punitive rates for those who have lifestyles that contribute to health risks. Doctors could have monetary incentives for effectively getting their patients to eliminate the lifestyle risks which would be measured by clinical tests, such as an increase in breathing capacity as an indicator of increased cardiovascular exercise or smoking cessation. One person suggested a tax on products that contribute to unhealthy lifestyles such as fast food and soft drinks.
4. How to pay for this. Besides the ways that the Obama team proposes to pay for health care reform one person in our group suggested taxing churches, taxing items that contribute to unhealthy lifestyles such as fast food, soda pop, foods with corn syrup or especially high fructose corn syrup, foods that contain genetically modified ingredients, and also eliminate tax loopholes and cease war.

Most poignant Story

The most poignant story was a fellow who sought treatment for depression during a painful divorce and was given a psychtropic medicine for a short period of time as part of his treatment. This created a label as having a mental health problem and he has been denied insurance because of that treatment during a difficult moment in time. He is a healthy vibrant middle aged man who is active in sports, hikes the Grand Canyon and is a joy to be with. He also finds himself in the insurance category of ‘single middle aged male’ which is considered a high risk group in insurance standards and that also works against him in getting insurance. He says that if he were to suffer a serious illness or accident that it could wipe him out. He has the money to pay for insurance but he cannot get a company to cover him.

Conclusion

Everyone totally appreciated the opportunity to participate in this important process. We all feel strongly that reforming our broken health care system is of critical importance and we applaud this promising beginning. Thank you for being open to the ideas and concerns of American citizens. We will continue to follow your progress on this vital issue.