Sandy Courtnage - June 30, 2009
Montana Farmers Union
Health Care Reform Necessary for Rural Health
Congressional listening sessions are all in vogue these days – everything from animal ID, to food safety to health care reform.
Congressional and administration staffers spread out across the country holding meetings and report to their bosses the sense of the countryside. But do they really listen to the testimony? I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking some folks inside the Beltway are tone deaf to rural America’s messages.
When it comes to health care, a recent New York Times/CBS Poll found that voters are ready for change and strongly favor a universal guarantee of coverage – wanting a public health insurance option that competes with private insurers. Yet most of the reported talk out of Washington, D.C. is that a universal plan or public option is not an option.
We believe that health care reform is necessary both for people’s physical health and our country’s economic health. Most people don’t have to travel far from home to be able to relate first-hand health insurance nightmares.
A recent report by The Access Project, a research affiliate of Brandeis University, shows that Iowa and Montana have the highest rate of uninsured farmers.
A major problem is that farmers and ranchers, like other rural self-employed and small business owners, simply can’t afford the high premiums of the private insurance market.
The Center for Rural Affairs, out of Nebraska, reports that one-third of farmers and ranchers depend on individual insurance plans, which is four times the rate for everyone else. And these plans most often have high premiums – or high deductibles – or both.
No insurance or very high deductibles result in delayed care, compromised health, and a jeopardized business.
Increasingly people look for off-farm jobs that provide insurance. And, of course, most people don’t want to literally bet the farm or ranch on the proposition that they will remain healthy and accident free, so if possible purchase high deductible plans to essentially insure the farm.
To add insult to injury, executives of three of the nation’s largest health insurers told Congress last week that they would continue canceling medical coverage for some sick policyholders. This strategy, called rescission, has left many thousands of Americans burdened with costly medical bills despite paying insurance premiums, but has let the companies avoid paying more than $300 million in medical claims over a five-year period.
America’s health care system is on life support.
Montana Farmers Union’s policy calls for a universal, single-payer, and comprehensive health care plan for all Americans.
Think we can’t afford such an animal? Paul Krugman, columnist with the New York Times wrote recently that, [quote] “we can afford universal health insurance – even the high estimates were less than the $1.8 trillion cost of the Bush tax cuts.”
Recently the Congressional Budget Office scored several Congressional health options as being prohibitively expensive, lending steam to public option opponents.
Yet, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich put it this way in a recent blog: “Projecting the future costs of universal health care without including the public option is like predicting the number of people who will get sunburns this summer if nobody is allowed to buy sun lotion. Of course the costs of universal health care will be huge if the most important way of controlling them is left out of the calculation.”
We would argue that, as a country, we can’t afford to NOT reform the unfair status quo.
The vast majority of people across the country want a universal coverage guarantee, and we can prioritize to afford it.
Benefits include a healthier population, and realistic insurance options for small business and self-employed will encourage entrepreneurship. It will also address current barriers such as affordability, and improve access and equity of care.
The 64 million dollar question is: will Congress and the Administration find the political will to get it done?
For the Montana Farmers Union, I’m Sandy Courtnage. Thanks for listening.
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