When Washington Redskins tight end Chris Cooley swung by Orr Elementary School in Washington, D.C., recently, he explained to the 100 kids circled around him that he’d already exercised that day.FORT WAYNE – People are still debating the health care law more than 15 months after President Obama signed it.
The legislation has added to industry regulations and costs, health care providers said at a Monday forum sponsored by Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-3rd.
But some audience members declared the law too weak, preferring instead a government-run, single-payer insurance program similar to what is used in other countries.
“Do you agree America has the best health care system?” Stutzman asked about 60 people in a conference room at Allen County Public Library.
A few in the crowd answered, “No, no.”
“It’s the best health care system for those that can afford it,” local resident Leonard Goldstein said from the front row.
“Health care became a problem when it became a business rather than a service or a right,” Goldstein said later to applause.
Kimber Beachy of Goshen said “the rest of the world” subscribes to government-run health plans, which she called “pro-freedom.” But panelist Dr. Thomas Vidic of the Indiana State Medical Association cited higher infant mortality rates in other nations “because they let people die. We provide better health care.”
Panelist Mona Reimers of Ortho Northeast and the Indiana Medical Management Association said eliminating for-profit health care providers is an alternative only “if you want the economy to collapse really fast.”
Local physician Leslie Swartz-Williams told Stutzman, “Most of the funding to care for people you’re trying to repeal.”
Stutzman – who voted in January with the Republican majority in the House to rescind the health care law, an effort snubbed by the Democratic Senate – replied that the federal legislation did nothing to address the rising costs of health care.
“Show me where the government runs things efficiently,” he said at one point about prospects for a single-payer plan.
Before the back-and-forth on health care, a couple of people on the eight-person panel touted the growth of the life sciences industry in Indiana.
Michael O’Connor, director of state government affairs for Indianapolis pharmaceutical maker Eli Lilly and Co., said 11 percent of the nation’s drug trials are conducted in Indiana.
However, he said, the cost of taking a drug from research and development to the market has climbed to $1.3 billion.
Monday’s forum was the second such program organized Stutzman, who was elected last November.
About two dozen people attended a panel discussion on energy issues last month at IPFW.
