UHCEF Article of Interest

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Sue Hutchison
San Jose Mercury News (click here for link to original article)

By now you have probably heard the grim statistic that half of the personal bankruptcies in this country are caused by huge hospital bills following a catastrophic health crisis. If you think this could never happen to you, consider the case of Carole Detherage.

Detherage and her husband have emerged only recently from more than a decade of financial hell after they were forced to file for bankruptcy when they were hit with $65,000 in bills for the medical treatment of their infant daughter. And the Detherages had what they thought was a great PPO health plan.

The nightmare began 14 years ago. Their newborn daughter Sydney developed a life-threatening case of pneumonia, and she was flown by helicopter from their local hospital in Modesto to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. Sydney survived the infection after weeks in the intensive care unit, but the family’s finances went on life-support.

The Detherages’ “great PPO” paid 80 percent of their medical costs. Still, they were billed for uncovered expenses that totaled more than the annual household income they derived from their landscaping and plant-nursery business. They had to file for bankruptcy even though they owned a home and had no consumer debt.

“We had to sell our house, and now we’re renting,” Detherage told me this month. “It’s like we’re starting all over again.”

`Single-payer’ witness

Detherage has told her story at rallies for Sen. Sheila Kuehl’s universal “single-payer” health care bill, SB 840. The bill finally passed the state Legislature after almost three years of fine-tuning, but last week the governor vetoed it as he had promised. The concept of universal health care is such a toxic political issue that even the governor’s challenger Phil Angelides, who had said he supported the bill, also seems to have backed away from embracing it in his campaign.

So, what is so scary about the only serious alternative that has been offered to solve our current health care woes? Yes, it would be a government-run system — so are Social Security and Medicare. Some say it would have all the problems of the Canadian health care system, but the bill does not use Canada as a model.

The governor might be able to come up with a more nuanced list of grievances about SB 840 if only he would accept Kuehl’s invitation to meet and talk with her about it. That seems the least he could do, since thousands of residents from all over the state, including many in Silicon Valley, have volunteered hundreds of hours to help bring the bill to fruition. And it will be reintroduced to the Legislature, yet again, next year.

Air your opinions

Now is the time to find out for yourself if universal care is something you can live with, since it’s pretty clear that we can’t live with what we’ve got. A coalition of local groups led by the Santa Clara County Medical Association is sponsoring a forum about single-payer health care in Palo Alto on Saturday. It will be held from 10 a.m. to noon on the Stanford campus in Room 105 at Geology Building 320, on the corner of Lomita Drive and Escondido Mall. It’s a guarantee that members of the panel will present passionate arguments for and against single-payer care.

The only hope of blasting this issue beyond politics is for the public to start insisting on a clear, specific solution. As Carole Detherage will be the first to tell you, it’s time to stop clinging to our false sense of security.

IF YOU’RE INTERESTED

To find out about the health care forum, call the Santa Clara County Medical Association at (408) 998-8850. For more information about SB 840, go to www.onecarenow.org
Contact Sue Hutchison at shutchison@mercurynews.com.
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Universal Health Care Education Fund, 8 Beacon St, Ste 26, Boston, MA 02108-3722
uhcef@aol.com | 617-723-7001 | 800-383-1973 | fax 617-723-7002

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