Local lawmakers take health care reform on the road
Like many members of Congress these days, Rep. John Sarbanes has been on a tour of his district, talking and listening to small businesses, doctors, seniors and other individuals about health care reform.
I got a chance to catch up with him today, just after a press conference remembering Deamonte Driver, the 12-year-old boy who died four years ago when his untreated tooth infection spread to his brain. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a fellow Maryland Democrat, held the event at state health offices to stress the need to keep the health care reform law intact.
Sarbanes said (Democratic) members of Congress, some of whom may have wanted to change the subject at election time, are increasingly trying to draw attention to the benefits of the law that includes preventative care measures such as oral care, many at no cost to patients.
Polls show many of those measures are popular, even if the American public is still split on the overall legislation. Those measures include closing the donut hole for seniors on prescription drugs, keeping kids on their parents’ insurance until they are 26, eliminating lifetime benefit caps and preventing insurers from considering preexisting conditions.
And while many GOP leaders say the law is far from affordable for the country, and should be repealed and replaced, Democrats like Sarbanes are trying to drive a different message -- this one about the rising costs to individuals from the current system.
“I ask people, for those who do have health insurance now, are you really happy with your increases in premiums over last 5 years?” he said.
“They’ve gone up 10, 15, 20 percent,” he said. “We can redesign the system to bring costs down, or make the trajectory not as steep. People say I have health insurance, don’t tinker with it. But if you ask if they are really okay, can they sustain the increases, they think about it.”
Sarbanes said he believes in the long run, there will be savings, as predicted by the Congressional Budget Office, because people will get more preventive care and not let problems linger to their most costly levels.
To be sure, Maryland is a more receptive audience. The governor, lieutenant governor, health secretary and others have been working aggressively to implement the law and take advantage of grants and other benefits of signing on to federal elements early.
The country as a whole is another matter. The House voted to repeal the law, though the effort failed in the Senate. Many states have sued to stop the law, and two of four courts have agreed that the individual mandate to buy health insurance is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court is likely to decide the matter.
However, supporters say having most everyone insured is key to making the overall law work because the larger pool of people paying into the system will offset the cost of covering more sick people.
Sarbanes acknowledged some of his constituents have anxiety, such as small business owners who already are struggling to pay for health coverage or don’t know how they’ll pay for new insurance. The owners and their employees now are some of the most likely Americans to be without health care, he said.
Along the way, Sarbanes said there will be room for changes. For example, Congress just moved to reduce some reporting requirements for small businesses. And while he says he and other members will continue to remind the public of what it’s getting with reform, he will be looking and listening for other areas that need tweaking.
Stay tuned. He just may show up at your workplace and ask.
