Newberg Graphic Online

Small crowd, heavy issues

Health care reform — Few turn out for GFU forum

• By: Amanda Newman  
• Published: 12/15/2009 1:44:49 PM
• Last Updated: 12/15/2009 3:47:22 PM

   There might have been too little advance notice. Perhaps the panel was too politically motivated or the cold weather kept people home. Or maybe George Fox University students just don’t care about national issues.
   Whatever the reason, a public forum on health care reform held at GFU Thursday drew a remarkably small crowd — the audience scarcely outnumbered the panel.
   “This is something that’s so important to young people, but we cannot get young people to come to the forum,” said facilitator Marni Haley, chairman of the Newberg Coalition for Human Dignity, which sponsored the event with the GFU Young Democrats.
   Although the audience reached nearly a dozen by the forum’s end, only three were students.
   The panel consisted of five professionals from various health-related fields. Most were united in their stance that health care reform is a necessity but offered differing views on what needs to be fixed and how.
   “Health care is a right ... and just because I’m traveling through Oregon and live in some other country doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be able to get (it),” said Nancy Nelson, explaining why a public option — especially with no requirements for legal residency documentation — would be “helpful.” Manager of McMinnville’s Virginia Garcia Clinic, she stressed the need for more primary care physicians, especially ones who will serve the uninsured.
   Debbie Glass, a registered nurse and recent interim CEO of Providence Newberg Medical Center, said reform should address care accessibility and affordability, instill new insurance rules, improve patient education and increase accountability — for hospitals, providers and patients.
   Chehalem Youth and Family Services clinical psychologist Victoria Ravensberg broached the subject of insurance plan requirement diversity, saying doctors spend much time calling insurance companies and sending forms — if the requirements matched, they would have more time for patients. Other panelists agreed, but said this was not addressed by current reform proposals.
   “This is really kind of the civil rights issue of our time,” primary physician Jim Scott said of health care reform. But, he warned, don’t expect changes to the health care delivery system. “All the reform discussion that’s going on right now is payment reform, (which) doesn’t really get at redesigning the system ... that’s going to be Phase Two.”
   Mike Cowles, a health service economist/researcher, took a financial approach. “Nobody knows exactly what we’re spending on health care ... (but) we’re spending more than any other country,” he said, adding that the United States also spends the most per capita or compared to the gross domestic product. “All health care economists will agree that spending is out of control.”
   Cowles said the country is home to “intergenerational inequality,” where the “young working poor” fund Medicare for the elderly, and said the government currently pays for about half of health care. He touched an ethical hot button, saying the money is paying for “the high-tech death.”
   “The inevitability of death is not accepted in our country,” Scott agreed, calling for honest conversations as they suggested people in other countries more willingly accept death as a diagnostic result.
   The panel discussed health care technology (not addressed by current reform proposals). Privacy rules and a lack of electronic records lead to facilities not sharing patients’ records and sometimes duplicating services. They talked about Medicare reimbursement and touched on care rationing, which Haley, joining in the discussion, said is “not a bad thing.” She said she doesn’t want to pay for an alcoholic’s liver transplant or extensive neonatal care for premature babies who could have lasting health conditions.
   A field representative for Sen. Jeff Merkley gave a brief update on the reform proposals. And, at the behest of the students, the panel went over some of the issues being addressed and the terms bandied around (e.g. public option, single payer and “doughnut hole”). But with the fluid legislation, they said, it’s difficult to know what’s proposed ... and, if passed, what we’ll end up with.
    “What’s Congress going to give us?” Cowles asked. “‘Nobody knows’ is the answer.”
    “We’re going to get a lot of people covered,” Scott said. “And then it’s still going to be a mess.”

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