Looking for a Bright Side
Republican and Democrat promote hospital coverage for all as Catamount fails Vermonters
By Peter Freyne
Seven Days: Vermont’s Independent Voice
11/21/07
Health Care Solved? — This month, the Vermont television airwaves are full of the well-done, funny ads with the farmer saying how he’s “healthy as a horse” — just before the horse behind him keels over!
The TV ads, centerpiece of a $1.6 million marketing campaign (http://www.greenmountaincare.org), were unveiled recently at Rutland Regional Medical Center by a bipartisan contingent that included Republican Gov. Jim Douglas, Democratic House Speaker Gaye Symington and Democratic Rep. Harry Chen, M.D.
The pitch is to get uninsured Vermonters over 18 who’ve been uninsured for at least 12 months to contact Green Mountain Care and sign up for the highly touted Catamount health insurance plan. That’s the one which was agreed upon by both the Democratic leadership under the Golden Dome, who surrendered on single-payer, and the best friend the insurance industry has in Vermont: Gov. Jim Douglas.
But Cambridge, Vermont, physician and health-care-reform firebrand Dr. Deb Richter doesn’t fool easily. Yours truly asked the good doctor recently for her take on what the state’s leading politicians are touting as progress.
“The governor is right, Catamount is a very good insurance product,” answered Dr. Richter. “And it will be wonderful for the few thousand people the state can afford to subsidize. But it won’t do a thing for the tens of thousands of Vermonters who are struggling to pay for health insurance policies that have huge co-pays and deductibles and barely cover their needs,” she added. “The Catamount solution is akin to putting a high-quality Band-Aid on a wound that is getting larger by the day. It won’t solve the problem. But it will get the governor re-elected. And that is the point, isn’t it?”
Richter doesn’t mince words. And she’s part of a growing body of medical doctors across the country who also want America to join the rest of the civilized world with regard to health care. They have an increasingly active national organization called Physicians for a National Health Program (http://www.pnhp.org). These docs share the “radical” notion with docs in France, Britain, Spain and Canada that “health care is a human right.”
Vermont’s health-care reform “Joan of Arc” was promoting Michael Moore’s illuminating film Sicko around the state this summer and fall. The other evening she brought the flick to a student audience at the University of Vermony. Good crowd turned out — almost 400.
When it was over Richter asked, “How many of you have health insurance?”
Almost all the hands in the theater went up.
“And keep your hands up if you have health insurance for life,” she added.
All but two or three hands dropped.
“See, that’s the problem,” said Dr. Deb. “Everyone in every other industrialized nation is guaranteed health care for life.”
But the “real” shame, noted this Vermont doctor, wife and mother of a college-age kid — and who does make house calls — “is that we’re already spending enough money in total to cover every single American with comprehensive coverage, eye care, dental care, prescriptions, doctor, hospital, everything!”
The audience of tuition-laden college folk was paying very close attention.
“You have to know a couple numbers,” said Richter. “Of the total amount we’re spending in Vermont, one-third of it is for administrative costs. It has nothing to do with health care. Not with people taking your blood pressure or doing any kind of surgery. You don’t need all these people in administration.
“Put it all in one pot and there’s more than enough money,” said the good doctor. “So this whole idea that we can’t afford to cover every single person in America is bullshit, and we should call it that!”
The audience burst into applause. Who doesn’t like a doctor who talks straight? In fact, Richter’s straight talk has prompted a few to suggest the candidate-strapped Vermont Left consider her as gubernatorial material in 2008.
Richter says she’s not interested. At least not at the moment.
So if there’s more than enough money to cover everyone, why isn’t everyone covered?
“You have to wipe out the insurance industry from health care. It’s a little bit of a problem,” she said with a tinge of sarcasm.
Yes, indeed.
Only in America, eh?
When it comes to your health, the middle man comes first!
The horse may topple over in the million-dollar Catamount TV ad campaign, but Dr. Deb isn’t giving up. Richter is organizing her troops behind H.304, a bill that would at least provide some hospital coverage to all Vermonters. A foot in the door, though not in the operating room.
The bill is sponsored by Barre Town Republican Rep. Topper McFaun and former Democratic Speaker of the House Michael Obuchowski of Bellows Falls.
Interesting duo, eh?
P.S. If you haven’t seen Sicko because you think you know what it’s about, do yourself a favor this holiday season. Rent it. Buy it. Sit down and watch it. Mr. Moore’s best by far.
Only in America.