Health care reform urged
Speakers at town hall meeting call for universal coverage through government program
By Patrick Cain
Special to the Times Union
Thursday, December 15, 2005
ALBANY, New York — Medicaid referrals aren’t easy for Dr. Paul Sorum.
“I virtually throw my hands up trying to find a provider” who will accept payment through the government insurance program for the poor, said Sorum, chair of the Capital District chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program. “We want to treat not only some of our patients but all of our patients.”
Sorum spoke recently at a town hall meeting at which doctors, governmental officials, advocates and local residents shared their concerns about the need for health care reform. The event drew about 70 people.
“We’re headed in the wrong direction,’ said Dr. Glenn McGee, director of the Alden March Bioethics Institute at Albany Medical College. He and others who spoke backed a bill on Capitol Hill, HR 676, which would provide universal health care coverage.
The measure would be good for Albany resident Beeca Leet, who explained her circumstances. She said she spends more than $600 a month on medication — that’s half of what she earns, which is too much to qualify for government services, but not enough to meet her medical needs.
U.S. Rep. Michael McNulty, a co-sponsor of HR 676 in the House of Representatives, was pessimistic about its chances for passage. “With the Bush White House and a Republican-controlled Congress, the bill doesn’t have a chance,” said McNulty, a Green Island Democrat. Slamming his fist on the table, McNulty expressed anger that some people resort to cutting their pills in half. “I have people in my office tell me they do this to make their prescription last longer,” he said.
Erick Cheung, a third-year student at Albany Medical College, equated today’s health care system with an obsolete classic. “You can’t make a Model-T fly,” he said.