I'm so sick/ Infected with where I live

                   Flyleaf, I’m So Sick

The US is in turmoil concerning health care, and there doesn’t seem to be much consensus on what to do about it. During a town hall meeting at University of Miami on Feb. 13, President Donna Shalala said, “I want to know how the presidential candidates are going to be able to build consensus about the solution. Bill Clinton’s mistake was he thought since there was consensus about the problem, there would easily be consensus about the solution. There wasn’t.”

During a Feb. 20 guest lecture in a health care at University of Miami, Dan Rosenthal, CEO of UnitedHealthcare of South Florida, explained that UHC is focusing on two things: reducing the number of uninsured in America, and making health care work better for those who are insured. That could be done in several ways, the most conventional being to get everyone to buy a plan, which in turn would reduce everyone’s cost.  Interestingly, Rosenthal also stated that he would be in favor of universal care, granted that it is comprehensive and covers those who are currently uninsured. But he questions whether a universal system could be self sustaining. And during the Town Hall meeting, Rosenthal told the crowd, “There’ still going to need to be organizers. There’s a difference between universal coverage and a single payer system.”

So there seem to be two issues: insuring the uninsured and making health care better for the insured. There are currently 47 million uninsured Americans nationally. According to a 2005 Census Bureau Study, Florida has the third highest population of uninsured residents, with 3.6 million. Only California and Texas have more.

Since the Republican nomination has pretty much been decided, we’ll look at the Democrats. One weakness of Obama’s health care plan may be that it is not as universal as Hillary’s. In fact, Obama doesn’t require everyone to have insurance, whereas Hillary would. However, Obama would have coverage for all children.

Donna Shalala offered some interesting points as to why Obama’s plan intends to cover children before anyone else. First, children don’t threaten anyone. They’re cute, and people feel sympathetic towards them.

Secondly, kids are inexpensive to cover because kids are generally healthy. This makes me believe that Obama’s plan intends to be feasible, if nothing else. The intention seems to be to have a plan that can be accomplished.

It’s also attractive politics. For the most part, we’re talking about supporting the children of parents who work.  80% of the uninsured in our country work, so the feeling here should be that working adults deserve to have their kids covered.  Finally, since this could be a fluffy, attractive plan, it’s a good way to build a coalition, and continue to gain support for other policies from here.

Health care has become an increasingly hot button issue between the Democratic candidates. The debate between Hillary and Barack earlier this week was at times fiery and energetic, with little agreement between them. But while it’s not necessary that Clinton and Obama play nice-nice (they are running for the same nomination), will they be able to get cuddly with the health care industry? Health care was the biggest industry in the country in 2006, providing 14 million jobs. Health care is also projected to grow more than any other industry in the next ten years.  Can we really expect major changes to health care in America considering how powerful the industry is?  And do we have to? Can we make the current system work?

“The system is definitely broken” Rosenthal agreed during the Town Hall. “The 47 million uninsured are not only a problem for the national community; they’re a problem for the health insurance industry as well. When you have that many people who don’t have insurance, the system doesn’t work well. We really think that we have a responsibility to participate in a discussion like this and implement wellness programs and prevention programs.”

When asked what kinds of wellness programs could help insure 47 million people, Rosenthal responded, “It’s a complicated picture. If solving the health care mess was easy, then we would have all solved it. One of the reasons people don’t have insurance or have access is because of the cost. And one of the reasons the cost is high is because the insured tend to be sick. By people taking better care of themselves, the cost will come down. It will be a more affordable process. It’s not the only answer. It’s a piece. There are no silver bullets.”

Again, there doesn’t seem to be consensus among anyone, especially between the politicians and the industry. But are people even paying attention to this issue? Will these issues make a difference in next Tuesday's primaries?

“We’ve never elected a president based on health care, and rarely on domestic issues. It’s always been on international or national security,” said Shalala. Maybe this year will be different.

After the Town Hall meeting, I conducted a brief interview with Frank Sesno, an Emmy winning journalist and professor at George Washington University. He is also a Special Correspondent for CNN.

Here is the video of that interview.