| Held
at the Torrance Marriott in Torrance, California Congressman
Steven Kuykendall hosted a public health forum on August 30,
2000. Part of a national series, “americans discuss
healthtm: Conversations in California,” local healthcare
affiliates met to discuss both regional and national
initiatives. A moderator and multiple speakers instigated
dialogue among various healthcare experts through three
discussion panels. Keynote speaker Dr. Hugh Hill, Deputy
Director of the HCFA Program Integrity Group, concluded the
forum. Throughout the forum, participants used electronic
keypads to register their own opinions regarding particular
issues. These eForums helped tally the opinions present in
a statistical format. Beginning the forum, participants
ranked the most crucial reforms needed in the healthcare
industry. The most important was providing healthcare
coverage to families without insurance, second was shoring up
the solvency of Medicare, followed by the delivery of healthcare
to the inner-city, next came making sure HMOs give the care
needed, and finally a stricter scrutiny of medical records.
This ranking coincided with how the rest of the nation typically
polls.
Congressman
Steven Kuykendall initiated welcoming remarks. He stressed
the need of making healthcare accessible to every citizen as six
million Americans currently do not receive adequate healthcare.
Those with the most severe health needs many times have the
worst coverage, are in the poorest hospital conditions, and
often only receive the most costly and retroactive care in an
emergency situation. In Los Angeles, specifically, the
uninsured rate is even higher than in most of the nation.
Congressman Kuykendall criticized the Medicaid system whereby
those earning just above the cut-off cannot receive any
benefits. Small businesses also pose a problem as they do
not always offer coverage in a society where employers cover
2/3rds of healthcare. Offering a possible solution, he
posed helping small business and the self-employed receive
health coverage with more affordable premiums.
OPENING
ADDRESS
Dr. Michael Karph, an M.D. at UCLA,
provided an opening address on the state of health care today.
With the balanced budget act in place, he urged, it seems no one
wants to pay for healthcare, yet the government is paying less
than ever. At UCLA for example, 22 million dollars were
lost from Medicare funding in one year. As the baby boomer
generation ages, it seems the government will increasingly want
to control healthcare. According to Dr. Karph, however,
this should be done in a way to give money back to the
providers. Employers are seemingly reluctant to serve
healthcare needs to their employees, but individuals also show
apathy to pay for their own coverage. Obviously, this rift
causes a problem that leaves many Americans uninsured.
PANEL ONE:
Knowing Your Options -- Access to Health Care in Southern
California
Cost proved to be the most critical issue
to solving healthcare problems according to this panel.
While paying for coverage poses a problem, the fact remains that
people do still need medical help, pointing to the critical
nature of healthcare reform. A need for a long-term policy
solution implemented in a timely fashion seemed to be the
consensus. The participants used the eForum to determine
the room’s opinion concerning whether the states or federal
government should be responsible for finding healthcare
solutions. 53% saw a need for the federal and state
governments to work together, 25% felt it was the federal
government’s responsibility, 13% saw it as the state’s duty,
and 9% polled in the other category.
Panelists
included Mr. Jonathan Freedman, Director of the L.A. County
Department of Health Services; Ms. Pauline Triebenbacher of
TRICare; Ms. Mandy Johnson of Community Clinic Association of
L.A. County; and Ms. Diana Concannon of the South Bay Free
Clinic.
PANEL TWO: Medicare and
Seniors’ Health
After speeches and discussion, the second
panel determined that the current Medicare system suffers
because it excludes people from the system. Looking for
solutions, however, Mr. Harper questioned whether the United
States is actually ready for a nationalized healthcare system.
He seemed to think a better route would be to tweak the public
and private systems, yet still leave them in co-existence.
How to pay for
prescription drugs was another hot topic of the second panel.
Due to the high cost of research to create new drugs, oftentimes
only health insurance companies can afford to supply their
client with the drug. While some drug companies provide
discounts, this seems to be a growing area of concern. A
few programs exist to aid this problem, but doctors are
reluctant to pursue filling out the paperwork to help a patient
fund his treatment when the doctor does not get paid for these
services.
The need to
implement a mental healthcare coverage also concerned the panel.
General apathy for faith in a government run system arose as
government officials are not experts in the field.
Veteran’s care, a government controlled healthcare program for
example, leaves much to be desired. Others noted that,
although flawed, the U.S. still possesses the best healthcare
system in the world. A poll conducted at the end of
the panel tested how the audience felt about the correlation
between better health care and paying higher taxes. 25%
were very concerned about increased taxes, another 25% were
moderately concerned, and 50% were not concerned.
Ms. Aileen
Harper of the L.A. County Center for Healthcare Rights provided
an overview about Medicare and seniors’ health.
Panelists included Mr. Ed Cotter from Foundation Health
Services, Ms. Marilyn Rafkin of Beach Cities Health District,
and Mr. Maurice Heyerick from HICAP.
PANEL
THREE: Looking into the Future of Health Care
In an age where people are
generally living longer than ever before, Mr. Lilly suggested
investigating the point between spending more on healthcare than
what is actually being added to one’s value of life.
When looking into the future of healthcare, alternative remedies
were closely examined. While most such practices have been
around for centuries, such as using a chiropractor or
acupuncture, they are becoming more and more a part of
mainstream medicine. Cigna, for example, actually includes
chiropractic services in its coverage. Also with new
technology, there arises new challenges. Healthcare’s
future relies heavily on correctly employing these new
technologies. For example, we can now treat most health
issues faster, but the costs have increased dramatically.
Coming up with solutions to these new issues proves crucial to
an effective healthcare system.
Drugs are also
on the market now that are of poor quality and some regulation
must be implemented to control this distribution.
Education needs to occur so society knows what drugs to buy,
what to avoid, and what herbs do not mix with other drugs.
Where one drug may solve a certain problem, over an extended
period of time it can sometimes deplete other nutrients within
one’s body. Taking a vitamin supplement can usually
solve problems such as this, but a focus on each individual case
must be used when dealing with any medical issue.
Oftentimes, the actual amount of herb as boasted on a label is
very low or, sometimes, not even present. In the end, the
consumer will determine the future. And even with
technological advancements, society still needs a human
component to healing.
The eForum
polling at the end of the session showed that the people in the
room used alternative treatments in the following order:
massage the most, herbs second, and chiropractic services third.
Nearly a quarter of the participants felt more alternative
therapies would be used if insurance paid for them.
Finally, when picking which disease funding should spend the
most money on cancer ranked number one. Those who selected
the “other” category cited more money on prevention and
Alzheimer’s disease.
Mr. Scott Syphax
of Eli Lilly provided an overview concerning the future of
healthcare. Panelists were Mr. Joseph Dunn, President and
CEO of Daniel Freeman Hospitals, Inc.; Dr. Cynthia Watson, M.D.
of Family Practice; Dr. James Wang with Cigna Healthcare; and
Ms. Asha Shahed of UCLA/Harbor REI. |
