Web Hosting by Netfirms | Free Domain Names by Netfirms

We are focusing on several issues within the Healthcare debate. We look first at the rising costs of medications, then the discriminatory practices of the insurance industry toward the mentally ill, and conclude with the mismanagement of the Healthcare budget when it comes to the reduction of funds for Assisted Living programs for the elderly, mentally retarded, and disabled members of our society. It is a social and financial disaster in the waiting. We aim to fix the current problems then focus on providing better healthcare for the future.

We can all relate to the skyrocketing price of healthcare. When was the last time you visited the doctor or had to fill a prescription at the pharmacy? No matter how one looks at the situation, it is an alarming trend in this day and age where insurance companies are less likely to cover the entire bill. It wouldn’t take much of a health crisis to sink the average “paycheck-to-paycheck” family deep into debt. Let us remind ourselves that these insurance and pharmaceutical companies are businesses, and their primary goal is to make lots of money. I think one would have to be quite naive to think that these insurance and pharmaceutical companies are in business simply to help out the average citizen. Through careful statistical analysis, insurance companies can make fortunes, while the pharmaceutical companies buy-out generic drug patents and create monopolies so they can charge whatever they want for medication.

Amassing fortunes provides the insurance and pharmaceutical industries with the only tool necessary to manipulate state and federal law. That tool is money! By contributing large amounts of money to the campaigns of designated politicians, they can control public policy by simply lobbying against any unfavorable healthcare legislation. It is yet another reason why we so desperately need campaign finance reform. But I wouldn’t hold your breath if you are expecting any sweeping healthcare reforms which might limit the profits going to the insurance or pharmaceutical industries. We hope to utilize public awareness and put pressure on our federal lawmakers urging them to put an end to this exploitation.

But there are other issues that we may be able to find a solution for here at the state level. One often overlooked issue is the discriminatory practices of insurance companies toward treating the mentally ill. Imagine going to the doctor with a kidney problem, and of course this physical ailment can be treated and covered by insurance. But if you go to a doctor for treatment of a mental illness, depending on your insurance policy, it may not be covered. The National Alliance for the Mentally Ill http://www.nami.org/ is currently seeking federal legislation to resolve these discriminatory practices.

Here in Ohio, this inequity can be found in every community. Currently, there is a bill, House Bill No. 33 introduced by State Representative Lynn Olman, which addresses these concerns by prohibiting discrimination in healthcare coverage for the diagnosis, care, and treatment of mental illness and substance abuse or addiction. However, this bill has floundered in our Statehouse, where the debate over the state fish has retained a much higher priority. It is just another example of our misguided leadership. If elected, we would be in favor of this type of anti-discriminatory legislation, particularly in regards to the healthcare coverage for treatment of the mentally ill.

Another glaring problem in our state is the reduction in Assisted Living coverage. Our state government is trying to solve the budget deficit by reducing Medicaid programs which directly effect the elderly, disabled, and the poor. (Please checkout the Disabled Action Committee for Virginia website at http://members.aol.com/DAC4VA/main.htm.  The founder of this organization, Keith Kessler, is from Ohio. With his disability needs, he cannot afford to live independently with the limited coverage here, and so moved from our state. What he and many other disabled and elderly citizens require are personal care attendants. In reducing coverage, our state is trying to save money, but instead, it’s wasting money while creating hardships for these Ohioans. This is when it develops the potential to be a social and financial disaster. By reducing the coverage for assisted living, the elderly and disabled are forced from the comforts of their own homes into nursing homes or institutions which costs three, four, five times as much or more! This multiplies the bill for state and federal aid.

A perfect example of this bureaucratic waste can be found by checking with your county’s Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (MR/DD). The MR/DD programs deal with those less fortunate, disabled citizens. The caring staff of these programs will testify to the fact that most of these individuals do not require institutionalization. Sadly, when elderly parents can no longer take care of their special needs child, where does that individual end up? More often than not, it is in an institution (cleverly labeled as a “developmental center”) a hundred miles away, where the individual is “warehoused” with a thousand or more other hopeless cases. The cost of these institutions is staggering, especially when compared to the minimal costs of an Assisted Living Center and the various programs and services offered by the County Boards of MR/DD. Here in Ohio, most counties rely mainly on local revenue from property taxes to fund these MR/DD programs, but they also get federal and state funding. The federal funding is through Medicaid which matches whatever the state puts in to the budget. However, when we experience a budget crisis, the first budget cuts are usually in social services, the ones who need it most. When the state reduces its funding to the Ohio Department of MR/DD, the federal revenue is also lowered. Reduction of budget means programs get cut, and those once living independently, many as taxpaying citizens, end up being forced into the institutions which cost significantly more in taxpayer money. By reducing the funds to these programs, the state may appear to be saving money, but in all actuality, they are costing us considerably more! Now where is the common sense in all this, more importantly, where is the common decency for our less fortunate citizens? Have we become so departmentalized that we have lost our humanity? The Ohio Department of MR/DD has an appointed director who serves on the Governor’s Cabinet. Through this appointment, combined with public awareness and legislative leadership, we can turn this social and financial disaster into a success story for everyone living in Ohio.

Paid for by the Committee to elect Whitman and Clark. 

Treasurer, Lana Whitman, 3716 Co. Rd. 31 South, Bellefontaine, OH 43311