Conrad, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, is holding public meetings around North Dakota to get comments from health care administrators, doctors and patient advocates and to push his proposal for cooperatives as private, nonprofit alternatives to a public health insurance. The North Dakota Democrat argues the co-ops would guarantee “choice, value and coverage.”
“This notion that we can somehow walk away from this ... that’s not realistic,” he told a gathering Thursday in Grand Forks. “And if we don’t get this right, we’re going to be condemned in history.”
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Projections show that by 2016, families will spend about 41 percent of their income on health care, Conrad said.
Health care overhaul is a priority of President Barack Obama, but has led to deep divisions in Congress. Critics of the co-op proposal have said co-ops would not have enough clout to bring down private insurance costs.
Without endorsing Conrad’s plan, Wakefield commended him for a willingness to reach across party lines.
“Reform is must-do,” she said.
Dr. Dori Carlson, a Park River optometrist, said in Grand Forks that she has 10 employees with health insurance plans.
“My health care costs went up 20 percent last year,” she said.
Pharmacist Dennis Johnson said “doughnut holes” in Medicare reimbursement policies leave some of his customers facing out-of-pocket payments they cannot afford and some simply stop taking their medicine.
In Minot on Wednesday, business leaders told Conrad they are struggling to provide health care.
“It has forced me as an employer to be very creative ... just so we can provide health care to our employees,” said Jerry Chavez, president of the Minot Area Development Corp.
“Half of our employees had to drop their insurance. The majority of them work in child care,” said Deb Kunkel, executive director of the YWCA in Minot.
nc34r wrote on Jul 4, 2009 6:48 AM: