Norton at Town Hall Meeting Offers Stats Showing DC Residents Want the Health Care Bill (9/16/09)

Norton at Town Hall Meeting Offers Stats Showing D.C. Residents Want the House Health Care Bill

September 16, 2009

WASHINGTON, DC - Hundreds of D.C. residents attended Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton's "Fact Check Town Hall Meeting on Health Care Reform" that observers said was notable for its civility, diversity, and little-discussed hard core information from three health care experts. They also heard compelling stories from three D.C. residents who set the tone for the meeting last night. Norton began by reporting the latest statistics on where D.C. residents stand on pending health care reform bills, according to e-mail, letters, phone calls, and visits to her office. The Congresswoman has received more than 2,000 contacts on health care reform, almost all supporting reform efforts in the House, but nine residents wrote to express opposition to any reform. Norton said that 276 District residents wrote in opposition to parts of proposed health care reform, and 220 of these opposed the public plan. Norton gave several examples of how the District would benefit from proposed health care reform. A new plan, she said, would afford about 2000 D.C. small businesses substantial tax credits to provide coverage for their employees. It would also spare 400 D.C. families facing overwhelming medical costs from bankruptcy, and help close to 3,500 seniors avoid the donut hole or cap in Medicare Part D, the point at which residents must pay the full cost of their pharmaceuticals.

Three D.C. residents - Jennifer Abbott, who has been denied insurance because she has asthma; Joseph Cobb, a Diabetes Type II patient, who also has Hypertension; and Rachel Newman, who has good health but must pay out-of-pocket for occasional medical services - opened the meeting with stories of their personal struggles within the current health care system. Abbot spoke of her pre-existing condition with asthma, which makes health insurance unaffordable for her. Newman, an independent, freelance entertainment writer, goes for months without health care, depending entirely on the employer, pays out of pocket when she gets sick, and has no health insurance. Cobb, who has long had diabetes and hypertension, told of struggling to pay $1,300 a month for insurance for his son and himself because of his health condition until he lost his job and then had to depend on prescription drug samples from his doctor until he was picked up by Unity Health Care at the D.C. Health Alliance, funded mostly through District taxpayers.

Norton praised former District Mayor Anthony Williams for establishing the D.C. Health Alliance, which serves more than 50,000 District residents who lack health insurance but do not qualify for Medicaid or Medicare. However, Norton told the Town Hall Meeting that no single state or city can accomplish health care reform on its own. Noting cuts the city had made in this year's Alliance budget, she said a year ago there were 48,000 residents registered with the Alliance, and 55,000 are expected for the next fiscal year, but D.C. has been able to budget for only 46,000, a cut from this year, despite an almost certain increase because of the recession. "It is unfair and unsustainable for the federal government to leave local taxpayers to do a "public option." Norton said. She praised D.C. for trying to do public health care on a local budget, and said relieving the District of fast-mounting Alliance and Medicaid costs is one of the reasons she is pressing for a bill this year without further delay.

Most of the meeting was devoted to questions by residents and answers from the Congresswoman's three experts: Dr. Linda J. Blumberg, principal research associate, Health Policy Center, Urban Institute; Elizabeth Carpenter, associate policy director, Health Policy Program, New America Foundation; and Karen Pollitz, project director, Health Policy Institute, Georgetown University.

Norton said President Obama deserves great credit for addressing the national health care crisis now. "The President was right to face this crisis before the collapse of the health care system. As the present ‘Great Recession' shows, it's much more difficult to re-build a complicated system from the ground up after it has collapsed than to catch it before it falls. Collapse lies ahead with health care costs rising at three times the rate of wage increases, the huge over growth of unattended wasteful practices, 50 million Americans still without health care insurance, and millions more who are at risk because of the escalating costs of insurance and refusal to insure regardless of health conditions."