While other town hall meetings discussing health care reform displayed a more hostile atmosphere, the Town Hall on Health Care Reform hosted by WDET, Wayne State University, and Senator Hansen Clarke, took a different approach, civility.
A refreshing scene, as courteous audience members asked questions and a panel of experts did their best to answer them, a wonderful example of how a town hall meeting should be run.
The Town Hall on Health Care Reform was held on September 9 at Wayne State University’s Community Arts Auditorium.
As people made their way through police security and the press set up their equipment, a panel of experts was introduced, beginning with Dr. Nancy George, Assistant Professor at Wayne State University’s College of Nursing. Followed by Dr. Herb Smitherman, WSU Assistant Dean of Community and Urban Health, Dr. Allen Goodman, WSU Economics professor with a specialty in urban and health economics, and Todd Zwillich, Capitol Hill correspondent for, “The Takeaway,” WDET’s morning news program.
Senator Hansen Clarke began first by speaking briefly to the audience about the importance of the decisions we make as a nation concerning health care reform.
“The decision on the type of health care reform we have in this country, whether we have it at all, is up to you. It’s your choice,” said Clarke.
According to the statistics given by Dr. Smitherman, 94% of the insurance market has no competition, thus, their prices continue to rise, leaving us with no choice but to pay the outrageous premiums. Dr. Smitherman states, “The problem is competition - there is none.”
There are 200,000 people in Detroit without health insurance. With health care premiums increasing to 70% since the year 2000, employers dropping coverage, and healthcare expenditures per person increasing, 50X higher than they were in the 1960s, it’s not surprising that 1 in 7 people don’t have access to a primary health care physician.
Today, healthcare accounts for 17.6% of the GDP and is projected to increase to 25% by the year 2020. Many audience members questioned the panel on whether or not there will ever be a day where the health care system becomes unsustainable.
According to Dr. Smitherman, “Where we are now is the tipping point.” For the United States to take on universal healthcare does not mean all problems will resolve.
The United State’s Primary Care capacity will not be enough to provide care for every single person in the country. This is because the population is divided between specialists and primary care physicians.
Specialists have 70% of the population, whereas Primary Care physicians have 30%. The primary care population needs to rise.
A question of how we ever allowed it to come to this point was asked by an audience member.
Zwillich answered, “ How did we allow it to get to this point? Lack of political will, for one. There are 47 million people in the United States without health insurance and counting. Most of those people don’t vote.”
A statement may have caused tension to rise, but instead it was met with silence and even a sense of shame.
Zwillich went on to say, “The notion that we have the best health care system in the world is a rhetorical notion. The problem at the individual level is that our healthcare keeps many of us out. We have the best CAT scans and the best MRI’s in the world, but the best healthcare in the world? Not by a long shot.”
The health care system is losing the trust of the people. As one woman in the audience asked, “When are we going to make sure people get health care - rather than health insurance?” This will happen when, as President Obama told a joint session of Congress that evening, the “time for bickering” over health care is over.
