Locals gather at courthouse to discuss single-payer health care
By Sarah Bloom
Indiana Daily Student
Oct. 1, 2009
About 40 people gathered in the Monroe County Courthouse Wednesday evening for a meeting advocating a single-payer, universal health care system, which has garnered considerable support in Bloomington, but is not being seriously considered in the health care debate in Washington.
Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan, a grassroots group that advocates for a single-payer system, organized the meeting to coincide with the Mad As Hell Doctors’ arrival in Washington, D.C.
The Mad as Hell Doctors, based in Oregon, made their case for a single-payer system at the Bloomington Farmer’s Market on Sept. 19. The traveling doctors are making their way to Capitol Hill in an attempt to meet with Congress and President Barack Obama.
Dr. Rob Stone, an emergency room physician at Bloomington Hospital and director of Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan, opened the meeting by talking about a recent study from Harvard University published in the American Journal of Public Health.
The study found that 45,000 people die annually in America for lack of health insurance, a drastic leap from earlier estimates of 18,000.
Stone said the reform options Congress is considering, especially the new Senate bill,
would do little to remedy these numbers.
“The best version is projected by the Congressional Budget Office to cut the number of uninsured people to 17 million, which means only 17,000 needless, tragic, preventable deaths per year,” Stone said.
Speakers then addressed the crowd about the urgency of the issue and their frustration at insurance companies, special interest groups and representatives in Congress.
Jay Bainbridge spoke about his friend and colleague Libby Yarnell, former executive director of Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, a Bloomington food pantry. Yarnell died in June at age 29 of a rare form of cancer.
Bainbridge said that because she did not have health insurance, Yarnell was unable to see a doctor for months after she began experiencing strange pains in her side.
She had to wait several more months to be able to pay for the numerous tests the doctor recommended.
“She may have died anyway, this may have been a cancer that was going to kill her no matter what,” Bainbridge said. “But I sure as hell would have liked to see her get a chance to get the tests done and start detecting what was ailing her when she was feeling sick.”
Other speakers shared similar stories about the dangers of being uninsured, and the necessity for universal health care.
Toby Strout, executive director of the Middle Way House, said employee health insurance costs are on their way to consuming 10 percent of Middle Way’s budget.
“We are shopping the market, and the market isn’t providing anything that makes sense,” Strout said. “If we don’t do this, the services that the Middle Way House provides aren’t going to be there anymore.”
Other speakers included Vic Kelson, president of the Monroe County Council, Sally Hegeman, president of the Bloomington-Monroe County League of Women Voters, and Nancy Woolery, health projects manager for the City of Bloomington, among others.
An audience member asked Stone if he was frustrated by the lack of attention Congress has paid to a single-payer model.
“It is a little frustrating, in fact it’s more than a little frustrating,” Stone said. “The original conception of the public option was going to be something that might, after five years, cover $100 million people. Now, even if there is a public option that comes through, it’s going to be, really, just a shadow. I don’t even know if you can use that term anymore to describe it.”