Forum on health care March 7

On Monday, at the Howard Dean Technical Center in Springfield, there will be an interactive TV forum on Vermont’s need to do better for all its residents.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110305/OPINION02/703059975

Published March 5, 2011 in the Rutland Herald

Forum Monday on health care

We Americans are a very trusting people. We believe that if we work hard, we will get ahead. We believe that if we act in all things in good faith, we will be treated fairly. But when we lose our job or get sick and can’t work, too often our trust is misplaced. One of the most serious betrayals of our trust is in the matter of health care. As a result of putting our faith in the word of the health care insurance industry, we who are not covered by the Veterans Administration, Medicaid or Medicare suffer the most expensive and often least efficacious medical care of any First World country. Slovenia offers overall better care to its people than we get from for-profit health insurers and pharmacy benefit providers.

On Monday, at the Howard Dean Technical Center in Springfield, there will be an interactive TV forum on Vermont’s need to do better for all its residents. You are welcome to attend and give your 2 cents worth about how health care could be better. Your input is especially needed if you agree with the five principles that underlie a good system:

1. Every person is entitled to comprehensive, quality health care.

2. Systemic barriers must not prevent people from accessing necessary health care.

3. The cost of financing the health care system must be shared equitably.

4. The health care system must be transparent in design, efficient in operation and accountable to the people its serves.

5. As a human right, the health care system that satisfies these principles is the responsibility of the government to ensure.

Already the insurance lobbyists are undermining the legislative effort by cautioning our representatives to go very slowly and make only the tiniest changes. When Medicare was voted in, it took only three months to cover the entire elderly population of America. Why should we go any slower for everybody in Vermont? Please show up to keep our people on track; make it a point to support good and affordable health care for you, your family, your friends and your neighbors. It’s the decent thing to do.

CHUCK GREGORY

Springfield