On Healthcare

It is important for the City Council to stay only to issues that have directly to do with the City of Janesville. But some national issues affect everyone in Janesville. One of these issues is our health and its care.

Everyone in Janesville has been affected by the closure of the General Motors. Many of those with health insurance are concerned about losing the benefits that they worked for so long and so hard to get. And the health care costs clearly played a role in the General Motors' outcome.

I think we can all agree that our health care system is not functioning well. It does not work for the hospitals, patients, or doctors. The incentives have been set up in all the wrong places. We have a health care system where the insurance companies charge the highest possible premium and are rewarded when they do not provide coverage.

We live in a system where a person without health insurance prefers to wait as long as possible before seeing a doctor. Naturally, this person is likely to cost more to treat than a person who is pro-active about their health care. The system is broken and it needs to be fixed.

And it is about time that we acknowledge that Health is not a political issue. It’s a human issue. Whether a Democrat or a Republican, we all want and deserve access to high quality health care. Yet it is becoming accessible at a higher price to fewer and fewer people.

The worst thing that could happen now is what happened in 1993: Nothing. We are over 15 years further down the road and the system needs a major overhaul more than ever.

Now, there are a lot of scary rumors floating around because people do not know the details and are instead being fed fears and doubts. For instance, I heard people say that now the health care in America will be like the one in Russia. Personally, I had my tonsils removed without anesthesia at a hospital in Moscow, Russia as a child. And what was particularly frustrating, was that my parents paid the bribe to have the anesthesia used. Let’s get serious, this will not be the Russian healthcare.

People who yell about health care at town hall meetings, are often upset because they are afraid to lose the coverage they got. But there is little doubt that even those people are frustrated with the current health care system.

Casting these fears aside then, this should not be a question of “if” but “how” will the system change. How do we make the changes that are needed, and how can a system be designed with the incentives put in the right places? How can people be motivated to stay healthy and to see their doctors at the first sign of trouble? How can the doctors be motivated to keep their patients healthy and out of trouble? There are a lot of questions and it’s about time we got some answers.

Another thing that should help everyone are the tens of millions of new patients that doctors and hospitals will get access to when people who are not covered in the current system are able to begin to address their medical needs. And all the additional multitudes of patients that will come from the group who are insured now but are hesitant to go due to the price such a trip likely to incur, and the potential implications of getting diagnosed with an ailment. There will be a dramatic need for doctors, hospitals and nurses to help take care of the new patients. This will create jobs and powerfully stimulate our economy for years.

The Janesville City Council at its next meeting on August 24th will take up a resolution in support of Universal Access to High Quality Healthcare. If passed, it will send a powerful message that people in Janesville are paying attention and are interested in reform that will result in universal access to high quality health care. In addition, it will urge our federal lawmakers to work together and to get this legislation done.

I am also very impressed that Councilmember McDonald is co-sponsoring this resolution with me. As you probably know, Mr. McDonald is an attorney who works in the injury law. Yet he also sees the need for change.

But this resolution does not have to pass. Janesville City Council consists of 7 people who do not agree too often. And that’s why it’s very important that on August 24th the council sees a room full of people – acting responsibly - in support of an issue before the vote is taken.

So if you feel, as I do, that this is an important issue that touches every one of our lives, and if you believe that this is an issue that needs to be dealt with now, I urge you to show your support by coming to the council meeting on Monday night, and emailing the council showing your support for this resolution. You can read the resolution for yourself below.

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis said nearly a hundred years ago: “Every voter is a member of the government.” I urge you to take these words to heart and add your voice to this debate.