CWA panel draws older community members
An overwhelming elderly audience occupied the East Glenn Miller Ballroom to hear three panelists discuss health care in the United States, Tuesday.
Panelists addressed the question of whether health care is a right or a privilege.
Sandra Person Burns, a distinguished adviser in the field of health care delivery and financing, said she thinks it is both a right and a privilege, from an economist’s point of view.
“We have made health care complex in the United States,” Burns said. “It began after World War II when employers started offering incentives to scientists and engineers to work for them.”
Burns said she thinks that the key to health care is public policies, which provide incentives for self-interest in individuals.
“Health care should be a right for everyone, but as citizens, we need to make sure the candidates we elect and vote for are well informed on the topic,” she said.
Daniel Odescalchi, president of the New York political consulting firm Strategic Advantage International, addressed the question by dehumanizing health care.
“In order for a society to function properly, individuals need to be healthy,” he said.
Odescalchi said a great place to start is for everyone to open a medical savings account.
He exemplified his point by creating a theoretical scenario.
Odescalchi set up a scenario of an employee who gets a high deductible from the company he or she works for of $3,000. From that amount, $2,000 is then placed in the market savings account to be used as the individual sees fit for personal health care in one year. The money that is not used rolls over to funds for the following year or is placed in a retirement fund.
“A medical savings account is ideal because it immediately creates an incentive for people to take care of themselves,” he said. “We need to establish policies that create self-interest.”
Chuck Dietzen, founder and president of The Timmy Foundation, which organizes international service trips and collects and distributes appropriate medicines and equipment, chose a humanistic approach to health care.
“It is my right as (a) person to have health care,” Dietzen said. “It is my privilege as a pediatric rehabilitation specialist to care for patients.”
Dietzen said he thinks the U.S. can make health care a right for everyone if the right presidential candidates are elected and informed on the issue.
“It’s not about entitlement it’s about empowerment,” he said. “In medicine, we speak in Latin – it’s like magic. Because I have this privilege, I need to teach patients how to better care for themselves.”
Dietzen also pointed out that it is important to remember that quarterly profits do not jive well with an aging population.
“We need to look at the population as a whole because health care is rationed,” Dietzen said.
When the floor was opened for questions from the audience, some audience members questioned the medical savings account.
“Medical savings accounts are a great idea if you’re a 20-something yuppie and if you work for a corporation,” one audience member said. “How can we get a policy in place that covers everyone?”
Odescalchi addressed her question with his knowledge of the medical savings account.
“Public education is key – health care policies should become part of our institutionalized education system,” he said. “We need to find the policies; medical savings accounts are just a great place to start.”
Burns also responded to the question.
“What I’ve learned about this country at my age is that when there is a crisis, Americans respond,” Burns said. “Individuals need to be empowered but need to be organized in their communities.”
Burns said she worries that people who live in Boulder may be blind to the chaos going on elsewhere because so many people are healthy and happy.
“Our country is in chaos, especially at the big city level,” she said.
Odescalchi concluded the open panel with a recommendation for the audience.
“Individuals need to educate themselves so they know what to tell the politicians; they will come up with a populist trite otherwise,” he said. “Think of this country’s history: we have always come from the bottom up.”
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Heather Koski at heather.koski@colorado.edu.
