Weighing In On America's Healthcare

By Broadside News Editor Noah Martin

Congressional hopefuls gathered in Harris Theatre on Wednesday night to deliver their proposals to the public about the growing problems of America’s health care system and faltering health insurance structure and to respond to specific policy questions from panel members. Even if they could not agree on a solution, all of the candidates were in agreement about a growing crisis.

The candidates were each given 15 minutes at the health policy forum to share what they would do to improve or reform healthcare in Virginia and in the nation. Speeches were followed by five minutes of questions, formulated by health care experts.

The night began with a brief address by George Mason University President Alan Merten about Mason’s community involvement and the importance of the work conducted by Health and Human Services.

Tim Henderson, active deputy director for the Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics, was the leader of the panel asking the delegates questions about health policy. He shared the results of a survey by Kaiser Family Foundation to set the mood for the forum. According to the survey, paying for health care remains a problem for one in four Americans.

The first candidate to speak was Gerry Connolly, Democratic congressional hopeful for the Va. 11th district. He began with an anecdote.

Connolly received a call from one of his constituents upon taking the seat of Chairman for the Fairfax Board of Supervisors. Connolly told a story about a woman who called him and said, “‘I have a dead deer in my front lawn, what are you going to do about it,’ she said. ‘Well, have you thought about calling animal control,’ I said. ‘No, I didn’t want to bother them this early on a Sunday morning.’” This, he said, illustrated the accessibility of local politics that is lost on the federal level.

Connolly said we have to do something to make healthcare accessible and affordable for all Americans, Connolly claimed, but we cannot do that until legislators can hear concerns. He could take that message to the federal level.
He thought that health insurance shouldn’t be able to cherry pick and exclude people based upon pre-existing health conditions. “Insurance companies need a risk pool, and need to spread the risk across the board,” Connolly said. “I believe that there is a lot that can be done, I believe there is a lot that has to be done.”

To make the health care system more efficient Connolly claimed, “We need to move to an electronic medical record system… the only caveat is that we need to be careful when considering rural healthcare systems and mandating an electronic medical record system because they have limited resources.”

Connolly then spoke about the strides that Fairfax County has made in improving public health policy.
Because of the late start of the event, Keith Fimian, Republican congressional hopeful for Va. 11th District, was only able to speak briefly before heading off to another event. He stated that patients should be put back in charge of their health care. We should give families refundable tax credits to purchase health insurance, he claimed.
He stressed that there was an urgent need to reform malpractice liability. His cousin, a doctor, paid as much in health insurance premiums as he made in income each year, Fimian said.

Fimian shared the belief with Connolly that the health care system should convert to an electronic medical record system but that a tax credit should be granted to health care providers to help relieve IT expenses when converting.
Fimian did not mince words when it came to the fiscal reality currently facing America. He suggested that the tumult on Wall Street was foreign creditors calling on their debt and that days of free credit were over. Fimian said we must recognize the economic reality of our situation. There are fiscal realities no matter how much we want to provide care to everyone so, he stated, that he would make sure that every dime he spent, if elected, would be spent as efficiently as possible.

Virginia House of Delegates member Mark Sickles spoke on behalf of Virginia Congressman Jim Moran. Sickles said Moran is passionate about expanding health care for the uninsured and underinsured, Sickles claimed. He supports the statewide health care plan that Massachusetts instituted.

Sickles then warned people about the reality of Senator John McCain’s plan for a health care tax credit. “It is not getting the attention that it should be getting,” said Sickles. McCain would take away the deduction for providing health insurance given to employers and a give private tax credit of up to $5,000 for a family of four, but if they are not making enough money to pay $5,000 in taxes then there is nothing for the money to be deducted from, said Sickles.

Sickles stressed, that for himself and for Moran, preventative health care would be the most efficient solution to growing costs and inefficiency, but until people had guaranteed coverage and did not have to rely on the Emergency Room as a last resort there would not be much improvement.

The health forum was hosted by the Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics and the Department of Health Administration and Policy.