Almost 500 people were in attendance at Monday’s health care listening forum in Hannibal. Many who came with preconceived notions about the options under consideration in Washington and U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill’s position in regard to the health-care debate may have been surprised by what they heard during the event. That would not come as a surprise to Missouri’s junior senator.
“One of the reasons I think it’s important to get out here is to try and give people factual information about what is being considered because they’re getting a lot of misinformation about what’s being considered,” said McCaskill during the first of three health-care forums she conducted Monday.
One piece of misinformation reared its head early in the forum that was conducted at Veterans Elementary School when it was suggested that a majority of her constituents are not in favor of health insurance reform.
“That’s not true. The majority of my constituents do want health insurance reform,” she said. “They are tired of being turned down for insurance because they had an illness 10 years ago. They are tired of losing a job and not being able to get insurance. And the worst, they’re tired of having a serious disease and all of a sudden the insurance company figures out some way not to pay. The vast majority of the people that I work for want some kind of health care reform, they just want to make sure they keep their choices, they don’t want a massive single-payer totally-government-run system and one of the things I’m out here doing is listening to my constituents and making sure I understand all their concerns so we can get the best bill possible.”
Another piece of misinformation encountered by McCaskill is that people currently happy with their insurance carrier will have to give it up if a health-care bill is passed.
“That’s not true,” she said. “If they want to continue coverage in the arrangement they have right now, they’re free to do so. Only if insurance coverage is terminated by the insured or anyone else, would they then have to abide by the regulations we’re talking about.”
McCaskill addressed other bits of misinformation she has encountered regarding what is being proposed.
“Any benefits to illegal immigrants are strictly prohibited in this bill. There is nothing in this bill that allows one dime of federal money to be spent on abortions. There is nothing in this bill that would allow the government to have any say as to end-of-life care. All this bill says about end-of-life care is we’re going to make end-of-life planning available to people so they can make good choices,” she said. “It’s not about taking decisions away from them. It’s making sure they have adequate information to make the right decisions for them and their families.”
What must health-care legislation include before McCaskill could support it?
“I think insurance reform is very, very important. I think most Americans agree on that part,” she said. “We’ve got basically 10 major health insurance companies that are controlling the market in this country. In Missouri there is just a handful of companies that control the market. There isn’t sufficient competition and the profits are extremely high and the practices of figuring out ways not to pay is really hurting people.
“The second thing is I would like there to be some kind of option, whether it’s a co-op or public option that will in fact inject some competition into this insurance exchange where people would be able to pick from various different companies inside of the exchange. I think that will be important in terms of bringing down costs.
“Then really looking at this idea that we’re going to incentivize conduct that is efficient and effective in terms of health care and not just reimburse for procedures because if you get reimbursed for a procedure then you’re motivated to do as many procedures as possible. The industry has kind of driven this thing to the point that it has been about getting reimbursement for procedures rather than what’s best for the patient.”
