New Hampshire Health Care Voices Debate Public Option

President Obama defines a public option as a government-sponsored program that would offer a variety of affordable health insurance plans.
It would be much like the program that federal employees, like members of Congress, already enjoy.
The President has said a public option would provide badly needed competition to the insurance industry.
And according to a recent poll by the Employee Benefit Research Institute 83 percent of Americans favor a public option.
Republicans in Congress, however, remain staunchly against it.
Gregg: “Is there a better way to do this, another route, so to say, that’s a compromise?”
That’s New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg.
While he opposes a public option, he says he can see the value in an insurance cooperative.
Gregg1: “Having a coop, which is basically a patient-owned entity, is one way to create more competition.”
But, he says, the devil’s in the details.
Gregg2: How the coop is designed is critical. There are coops that work very well. The NH Utility Coop works very well, There are credit unions that work very well, so it is a structure that can work if it’s done correctly.
While New Hampshire Congressman Paul Hodes hasn’t called the public option essential for his support, he is still pushing for it.
Mark Bergman is Hodes’ spokesman.
Bergman1: “The congressman has been and currently is a supporter of a strong public option which he feels will reduce costs for everyone, increase competition in the insurance marketplace and put New Hampshire consumers back in control of their health care and their health insurance.”
But some Republicans – including former New Hampshire HHS Commissioner John Stephen-- feel there are other ways to put consumers back in control
Stephen, now a political consultant, is advising the Chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee on Medicaid policy.
Stephen1: What we need is transparency of cost and quality and we need more competition.
Two insurance companies dominate the New Hampshire market.
Stephen2: “That’s what’s driving the cost up.”
Stephen favors increasing competition by allowing people to purchase insurance across state lines.
And, he says, consumers should be able to see the true costs of medical procedures – as they do with consumer goods.
But two New Hampshire health care advocates who work with the uninsured say some kind of public insurance plan is critical.
Katherine Terrie is with the North Country Health Consortium in Whitefield.
She says the North Country economy is dominated by small businesses, which have few options for insurance coverage.
Terrie4.wav: without the ability to purchase health insurance like what the public option is designed to do, the citizens of the North Country are really not going to have any more options than they have now.
As North Country unemployment has grown, so too have the numbers of uninsured.
Critical access hospitals and community health centers provide most of the North Country’s health care.
And large numbers of uninsured patients are putting those providers on extremely shaky financial ground.
Tess Kuenning is executive director of Bi State Primary Care Association which represents community health centers in New Hampshire and Vermont.
While Kuenning favors the public option, she points out that this debate misses a larger point.
Kuenning4.wav: “I think we’ve really lost sight of what the goal is. It’s not about health insurance reform. It’s about health care reform.”
Kuenning wants the national conversation to become more holistic.
Kuenningreform: “We need to change from what we have now which is really a non-system. We offer very limited degrees of integration of care of primary care, mental health, oral health.…and so we really need to create a different system of care.
Lawmakers are expected to continue debating just what that new system will be when they get back to Washington after Labor Day.
For NHPR News, I’m EG.