Health Care is Top Issue Locally As Well As Nationally
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Health Care on the Minds of Local and National Voters
Surveys consistently show that health care is the top priority item for ordinary people.
Conventional wisdom is that no matter who is elected President there won't be enough money to achieve a solution to the health care problem nationally.
Locally, we have a decision pending Tuesday in the national election to support the Bay Health Care Plan that would provide a stopgap in case a national plan is not adopted.
The plan is designed to provide basic, affordable health care services for eligible, legal residents of Bay County who have no private health insurance and are not eligible for federal or state medical coverage.
It would provide discount and free basic prescription medications for seniors to bridge the gaps in Medicare Part D.
It would also help workers purchase coverage for themselves and their families through their employer.
Services covered include doctor visits, lab tests, x-rays and prescriptions, expanded vaccination program for infants and families, cancer screenings, disease prevention programs and early treatment and testing. And, backers have promised, the local plan and its .67 mill tax would be phased out when the national plan takes over.
The facts of health care locally are that the emergency room at Bay Regional Medical Center and the Helen Nickless Volunteer Clinic are overwhelmed by the uninsured.
Says Bay Health Plan campaign chair Rick Dryzga:
"Millage funds will help ensure that the Bay Health Plan continues to help working families and individuals who are uninsured county residents age 19-64, are not eligible for Medicare or Medicaid and meet income requirements."
"This is not welfare," says Mr. Dryzga: "It is for legal residents of Bay County who have no private health insurance and are not eligible for federal or state medical care coverage."
Mr. Dryzga said passage of the local plan will generate $616,000 in federal matching funds, which will go back to the community.
Without approval of the Bay Health Plan, he said the system will be able to serve only about 800 people, possibly reducing services to only a prescription drug benefit.
Also, the uninsured would be forced to go without acute, routine and preventive care, prescription drugs and would have to use the emergency room for care.
"In truth, the health of the county is at stake," said Mr. Dryzga.###
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