By Shavonne Potts
spotts@salisburypost.com
The consensus from Salisbury residents about President Obama’s health care plan is mixed, as it has been around the country. Some residents say they want more information, while others think the slate should be wiped clean and a new plan proposed.
Melissa Hunter, owner of Handbag Heaven and Accessories, saw the speech and is of the mindset there should be some type of health care reform.
“There should be some type of insurance that people with preexisting conditions can get,” she said.
Hunter said people read more into the plan than it really has.
“We are moving forward and it scares people. Change is scary,” Hunter said. “He (Obama) ran on the basis of change and we voted him in, so let’s let him do his changing.”
Charles White Jr. has a lot of concerns about the proposed plan. As details come out, he’s only left with more questions. He specifically wants to know things like if a person is hospitalized for a procedure and must return, will the insurance company cover it or would he have to pay another deductible?
White noted even Obama has said he didn’t do a good job of explaining some points of the plan. White said if the president can’t explain the plan then it doesn’t need to exist.
White thinks the proposals should be rewritten.
In the mid-1980s, Tonya Rape knew there should be some sort of checks and balances put on insurance companies.
“I knew it before he even thought about it,” she said of Obama.
In 1985, her husband had brain cancer and she learned firsthand about the hardships a person goes through when dealing with an insurance company.
“I’m in favor of government run health care,” she said.
The Salisbury resident believes the president is “right on target.”
“He’s more in tune with the regular American citizen, more so than any other president,” Rape said.
Justin Wells admits he didn’t watch the speech, but he wishes people would understand the government is not trying to take away their current health insurance plan.
“I think it’s a misconception where people think they are going to lose what they already have,” Wells said.
He often discusses this and more issues with his sisters, one who works for a drug company and the other who is in medical school.
Wells is manager of Ultimate Sports Apparel.
Michael Jones of Salisbury said he doesn’t know enough about the health plan, but he feels they are tossing the elderly aside.
There should be a plan to help the elderly get the medicines they need, but can’t afford, he said.
“I want to know more about it,” he said.
Shepard Averitt, administrator for Salisbury Pediatrics said he was completely insulted by Obama’s speech.
In the beginning, Obama assured the people the economy had been “pulled back from the brink.”
“That is not the truth. It is a bold face lie,” Averitt said.
He pointed to unemployment and the dour housing market.
“They don’t have a handle on this,” he said.
Averitt said he is not in favor of any of House Health Care Bill H.R. 3200 because it puts government intervention into health care. The majority of physicians that he’s talked with do not agree with government intervention of any kind.
“We deal with government intervention every day and the last thing we want is more of it,” he said.
Averitt said Obama was not entirely truthful about not insuring illegal immigrants.
“Technically speaking, that is a true statement, but in reality it is as false as can be,” he said.
In H.R. 3200, the bill prohibits a check on citizenship of anyone applying for government-assisted health care, he said.
“Every day illegal immigrants are treated at every practice in Salisbury and the city. They present a Medicaid card. How do they get it? They use false documents,” Averitt said.
Public health and human services programs prohibit health providers from asking a person for proof of citizenship, Averitt said.
“When you are not checking, you can’t make that statement because they are already being treated on a government program ó Medicaid,” he said.
The problem he said is with the way the health insurance industry works.
“The insurance company tells me what I will make,” Averitt said.
Averitt said he believes there should be more competition and choice among insurance providers.
It was a point Obama outlined in his speech, refuting the publicly sponsored insurance option that would be administered by the government, like Medicaid or Medicare. Obama said consumers do better when given a choice. He said his health plan will cost $900 billion over 10 years, which is less than the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Averitt said there is no way the government would be able to come up with that amount of money.
Averitt would prefer Obama to scrap this plan and start over, considering all points of view.
“Everybody’s not 100 percent wrong,” he said.
Dr. William F. Pilkington, director Cabarrus Health Alliance, said this much is clear: there needs to be health care reform.
“The health care system is contributing to our deficit,” Pilkington said.
He said the United States has one of the worst health care systems there is.
“It’s a matter of reasonable people reaching some reasonable decisions,” he said.
Pilkington said without changes made now, in 10 years the government will be bankrupt.
“The misconception is that Medicaid is not a government plan, but people don’t understand they are public programs,” he said.
Both Medicaid and Medicare are plans that have worked, Pilkington said.
“The key thing is to get these 40 million people who don’t have health care coverage,” he said.
The health care system is confusing, Pilkington said.
There needs to be a plan that is clear for people to understand what services they are being offered.
“We need to get a system that clearly provides a certain level of health care for every citizen without making it cumbersome for them to get it whether from a public or private source,” he said.
Whether a person is a Democrat or Republican, they should make a choice and recognize there is a limited amount of time to fix the problem, he said.
“The arguments need to be, ‘let’s figure out how to use these resources at a much lower cost,’ ” Pilkington said.