This is a unique time for single payer in Illinois.
...it’s all in the timing.
We have a single payer powerhouse in veteran legislator Rep. Mary Flowers who has made it her mission to provide everyone in Illinois access to health care. It also helps to be the chair the Health Care Access Committe.
This weekend she barnstormed northeastern Illinois to continue the passionate discussion on her single payer bill, HB 311.
This lady wants single payer for Illinois in 6 months not 6 years.
She cares personally and professionally about this issue and wants to make this a single payer summer.
Educate.
Fight the fear...
And take care of her little state right here.
Saturday, June 28, the second in a series of statewide hearings on HB took place in McHenry.
I couldn’t make it, but my gruff but loveable correspondent Ozzie made the trip and recorded it for me and for you...
I pass the mic.
Thank you Catjab, Ozzie here-
The second public hearing on Rep. Mary Flowers’ Illinois Single Payer bill, HB 311, unfolded more like a town hall meeting.
Note: Audio links to full statements are included, thanks to our friends at Illinois Media Progressives
In an intimate meeting room at the Shah Center in McHenry, district Rep. Mike Tryon (R) (fellow member of the Health Care Availability Access committee which Rep. Flowers chairs), opened the hearing as Rep. Flowers battled traffic.
Rep.Tryon had suggested little support within his district, so kudos to him for being open to a dialog. I was impressed by the mutual respect expressed by Rep. Tryon and Rep. Flowers when she arrived. Apparently civility still exists on the state level, at least in Illinois.
AUDIO
Reps. Flowers and Tryon
But unfortunately, being gracious does not also make you right. Rep. Tryon spoke of the problem his county faces because of its affluence. He stated that his county’s "poor weren’t poor enough" to qualify for a federally funded health clinic within the county, and had to travel distances for care.
AUDIO
This is where I went hmmm... as I realized that Rep. Tryon was opposing single payer and advocating a free-market solution at the same time he was decrying a lack of federal funds for clinics.
Not to mention the implicit class-tiered system he seems to be advocating, where the affluent purchase through the market and the poor get federally funded ‘clinics’.
See? I bet you went hmmm..too.
He also maintained a root of the problem was the evolution of managed care, citing the treatment dollars that have been shifted to management over the last few decades.
I was left wondering if he was advocating for the abolition of managed care in this country, but I doubt that’s the case.
Fellow Kossack Donna Smith felt compelled respond to the Representative.
AUDIO
After working all of our lives...you do everything you’re supposed to do and lose it all because you get an illness...
My maximum amount of out of pocket exposure every year was $9,000 along with a $1,200 a month cost, every month, for premiums and co-pays and deductibles and medicine. That is not a direction I want us to move more in favor of...
For me the only way to fix this in a just manner that’s fiscally responsible is through a single payer plan. All the rest is details.
Unlike the first Simeon hearing, there were people who spoke against single payer, one of whom cited ‘personal responsibility’, a few railing against ‘new government bureaucracies’ and the gentleman who read from the Declaration of Independence. He stated that single payer would take away his liberty to purchase whatever health insurance he wants.
Dr. Quentin Young of PNHP sat quietly through most of the hearing, which by his own admission, was difficult for him. But when he did finally choose to speak, it was well worth the wait.
AUDIO
...there's a healthy mistrust about government, well I got news for you, I share that mistrust...I’m coming off 60 years of practice. There’s no question that in that period of time, no insurance company has come close to Medicare in fairness, promptness of pay and reasonable fees.
Mr. Sal LiVolsi, McHenry resident, didn’t frame the issue quite like that. He offered a very compelling story of his son, a hemophiliac, and his medical costs which top $500,000 a year.
Mr. LiVolsi stated the insurance company had a $5 million cap on his son's benefits.
"You do the math." he said.
Mr. Livosi, by his own admission, considers himself a conservative Republican. But from him you can hear how this issue transcends right or left. He heads the Hemophilia Foundation of Illinois, and was also a gentleman. I close with his words:
AUDIO
Thank you to you (Rep. Flowers) and to Mike (Rep. Tryon) in terms of brining this relationship of health care to a greater audience because it’s unfortunate that the people that need it the most are the people who have the least voice in what is going on...The system is broken and I’ll be quite honest with you, so you know where I’m coming from, I consider myself a conservative Republican...I’ve always been a person that has been for the marketplace as a conservative Republican...and the health care situation in this country has become such a problem that it’s no longer possible to fix through the marketplace.
Thanks Catjab and everyone else for taking the time-All in all the hearing was a productive and important discussion. We'll continue to work with Illinois Media Progressives to bring you audio and video of single payer hearings throughout the state.
There's a lot of edumacating to do!
Back to you Catjab
-Ozzie
Tanks, Oz-
You can be sure I’ll bring you more chats with Mary on single payer as the summer drips on and I’m excited to talk with Donna Smith this week about her take on the McHenry party.
I’ll keep you posted as I do try to bring enough to share...
Catjab