By Pamella Gronemeyer, M.D.
Edwardsville (Ill.) Intelligencer, Letters, Aug. 1, 2012
Recently, I attended the Americans for Prosperity (AFP) event in Edwardsville entitled “Healthcare Freedom.” I am a Medicare for All advocate and a physician. I went to see how and what the AFP (the not-truly-a-grassroots organization but more the tentacle of the Koch Brothers) was selling.
The gist of the presentation was that Illinois should reject the federal money for expanding Medicaid and not set up health care exchanges putting our state in the same nihilistic class as Florida and Texas. Medicaid shouldn’t be expanded because it is broken. We should reject the Affordable Care Act (ACA) even though the presenter acknowledged that there is no other plan in the works to fix health care nor help cover the working poor who can’t afford health care now.
The story about the 12-year-old who died of dental disease because the family could not find a Medicaid provider was tragic. When asked what should have happened, there was no answer. The child’s death was inevitable (the speaker avoided answering the question). I agree that Medicaid’s payment rate is low and the checks are slow: however, ending Medicaid or shrinking it is not the answer.
Until we get single-payer health care, the ACA is the law of the land. If the AFP likes states’ rights then hopefully Vermont will get a waiver for state single payer and California will move forward. Most of the people in the room looked like they were Medicare age. None of them complained about their single-payer care.
Pamella Gronemeyer, M.D., is co-president for Southern Illinois of Physicians for a National Health Program-Illinois and a member of the board of the Illinois Single Payer Coalition. She resides in Glen Carbon, Ill.