Local Reaction to Healthcare Reform
by KXMB TV
Posted on 6/26/2009
A debate on Capitol Hill will affect all of you. Congress is working through proposals for a Universal healthcare system. This would mean the nearly forty-eight million people without health insurance would now be covered. Initial reports have the price tag for the program at one trillion dollars.
A couple of local groups supporting the initiative say it is time to make sure all Americans are covered.
“We need to insure everyone. There should be no uninsured. There should be no underinsured and there certainly should be no uninsurable citizens in this United States of America because healthcare is vital to our lives,” states Dave Kemnitz, ND AFL-CIO.
Local healthcare officials have their concerns about the proposals. A major issue for hospitals is reimbursements. Hospital officials in North Dakota have been fighting the Medicare reimbursement plan. This is the same reimbursement plan included in many of the proposals. North Dakota facilities receive about twenty-five percent less than other facilities in the country for the same procedure.
“If the government option becomes available at a lower cost to employers will employers take that government option rather than that Blue Cross option now if that happened that shifts reimbursement as a provider from Blue Cross for or payment which is significantly more than Medicare to a Medicare payment that shift that change would be catastrophic to hospitals in North Dakota, ” states Andy Wilson, St. Alexius Medical Center.
