Thank the Legislature for coordinating health care

On July 1, a package of new health care reforms approved this spring by the Legislature went into effect. I’m writing because Sens. Matt McCoy, Staci Appel, Jack Hatch and Dick Dearden helped approved this groundbreaking legislation. When you see them, you should thank them and other legislators for listening and working with all sides to accomplish something significant for the people of Iowa.

I have worked for 28 years as a family doctor at a community health center in Des Moines providing care to the uninsured and underinsured and have steadily worked to improve access to health care for all Iowans. Until this year, I haven’t seen much progress. Iowa was average when compared to other states, but that’s setting the bar pretty low. After all, 47 million Americans have no health insurance and another 25 million have inadequate insurance.

Things are changing. Rather than just focusing on the money, our state leaders are now working on improving the quality of health care every Iowan receives. They are doing that by underpinning the funding with a sound policy focus. At the same time, they are bringing people without health insurance into the system. For example, you may have heard about the new commitment to bring health insurance to every Iowa child. But have you heard about the policy effort to encourage “medical homes?” As your medical home, your local clinic or your family doctor’s office will be your first stop when it comes to getting healthy and staying healthy. Your personal “medical home” would, for example, track all your medications, help you manage your own health and help coordinate your overall health care.  

The medical home concept will save money and improve health care. As a physician, I believe that doing health care in a coordinated way will be less expensive than our current practice of essentially having a “non-system.” So, thank you Sens. McCoy, Appel, Hatch and Dearden. When it comes to health care reform, they’re getting the job done.

Dr. Bery Engebretsen
Urbandale

Stop trading access for big money

You can’t change Washington without eliminating the influence of the special interests. Sen. John McCain received over $650,000 from federal lobbyists and over $700,000 from executives in the oil and gas industry. The McCain campaign has received nearly $1 million from political action committees (PACs). Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has refused to accept contributions from special interest lobbyists and PACs since the beginning of the campaign.

Nearly 50 percent of McCain’s donors contributed $2,300 or more to his presidential campaign in comparison to less than 30 percent of Obama’s donors. Nearly 50 percent of Obama’s donors contributed $200 or less in comparison to less than 25 percent of McCain’s.

When it comes to the Washington power game, we need to stop trading access for big money. If you defend the system that defeats change, you can’t be the person who will, in fact, bring change.

Mitchell Henry
Des Moines

Congress should pass Mental Health Parity Bill

People who are being discriminated against with mental illness need help in passing the full Mental Health Parity Bill. An agreement was recently made on the terms for a final full Mental Health Parity Bill by the Senate and House negotiators.

For years, efforts to end discrimination in health care insurance coverage for mental illness have failed in Congress, despite having a bipartisan majority of supporters. Now with passage by both the House and Senate of separate mental health parity bills (H.R. 1424/S. 558), we are literally at the door of ending this terrible discrimination.

Parity makes sense and is affordable. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that providing mental health parity would increase health care costs by less than 1 percent. At least one in five Americans suffers from a mood disorder or other mental illness. These individuals should be afforded the same level of insurance coverage as those with a physical illness.

Please do all that you can to work with your colleagues to pass the full Mental Health Parity legislation this congressional session.

Al Carter
Des Moines

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