Medford – Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley led a health care roundtable with
Southern Oregonians today to highlight the many problems with our health care
system and discuss ideas for fixing it.
“The
stories I heard today are all too common in Oregon and across the country,”
Merkley said. “Our health care system is broken and it is dragging down
families, businesses and our economy. Health insurance companies will accept
people’s checks, but not their claims. They will raise small business’ rates
and lower their profits. This system injures patients, crushes our economy, and
demolishes families’ life savings. It desperately needs reform.”
Merkley
was joined by three Southern Oregonians at Ogden Roemer Wilkerson Architecture in Medford,
including entrepreneur David Wilkerson and grandmother Karen Jeffery.
Wilkerson
is a partner at Ogden Roemer Wilkerson Architecture, an architecture firm that
employs 12 full-time employees. David’s company is dedicated to providing
a family-friendly work environment and provides full medical, dental, and
vision coverage to their employees. The company has seen large annual
increases in health care premiums cut into profits and has had to change
carriers several times to keep costs down, wasting time and money.
Health care
costs are the second-highest expense for David’s firm, after payroll.
This year, rising health care costs forced David and his partners to look very
closely at either cutting health care benefits or laying off employees.
“Rising
health care costs lower my firm’s ability to compete,” said Wilkerson. “Our
outrageous health care costs are the second highest expense to my firm and the
number one burden for small businesses.”
Karen
Jeffery, 64, is a writer who recently moved from Hawaii to Ashland to be closer
to her daughter and grandchildren. Karen was insured in Hawaii for over
30 years and continued to pay her monthly premiums even as they
increased. Fifteen years ago, Karen suffered from a broken hip and a bout
with cancer. Quotes for insurance in Oregon had premiums between $500 and
$700 per month and deductibles of between $5,000 and $10,000 per year.
Due to the
high costs of health insurance and the likelihood of being denied coverage if she
were to get sick, Karen is forced to go without insurance for the next five
months until she qualifies for Medicare. Karen is concerned about her
daughter and son-in-law, both small business employers who can’t afford
insurance. Three out of Karen’s five grandchildren don’t have insurance
and Karen worries what will happen if one of them gets sick.
“I
can’t afford coverage, but at my age, I can’t afford to be sick either,”
Jeffery said. “Like many people I know, I’m just holding on until I can
start on Medicare.”
Merkley
laid out several principles for fixing the system including:
- Lowering health care costs for all Americans by
increasing competition and investing in prevention and wellness
strategies; - Strengthening small businesses by providing tax
credits, stable pricing, lower administrative costs, and more choices; - Promoting stability for those who have insurance by
ensuring that they cannot be dropped from coverage if they happen to get
sick or injured; - Offering Americans more health insurance choices,
both private and public; - Including a public health insurance option to hold
insurance companies accountable and keep costs low; - Ending discrimination based on pre-existing
conditions; and - Providing insurance coverage for over 95 percent of
Americans.
“We
have a choice between two visions of health care,” said Merkley. “In one,
Americans have to worry every day that an insurance company bureaucrat will
drop their coverage when they need it, or that the annual price spikes will
make care unaffordable. The alternative is to reform health care in a way
that preserves the best of what we have, but finally ends the uncertainty and
spiraling costs we’ve had to live with for so long. We must act now.”
For
more information on Senator Merkley’s health care proposals, click into www.merkley.senate.gov
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