As the new State President for AARP Virgin Islands, I want to be sure that territorial residents don’t fall prey to the misinformation that is purposefully being spread. Opponents to health care reform, in an effort to influence the American people to put pressure on their Congressional representatives, are spending huge amounts of money to derail the health care reform effort. This is a political tactic and we must all recognize that there are many sides to this debate, and each side hopes to prevail in order to serve their own interests.
AARP wants America’s broken health care system to be fixed and to achieve six basic things. Our priorities include: 1) health insurance coverage for people age 50-64; 2) eliminating the Medicare Part D doughnut hole; 3) creating a Medicare transitional benefit between hospital discharge and home; 4) developing an approval pathway for generic biologics; 5) creating more long-term care options; and 6) Improving programs that help low income Americans in Medicare afford the health care and prescription drugs they need.
Unfortunately, the rumors that abound stateside are bordering on the absurd. First, there is absolutely no truth to the Social Security Administration or any of the health care reform bills requiring a “mandatory euthanasia counseling” clause. Not only is this completely false, it is a misleading and cruel scare tactic. Health care reform will not give the government the power to make life or death decisions for anyone regardless of their age.
Next, there are rumors about cuts to Medicare benefits. None of the major health care reform plans currently being considered would cut Medicare benefits. Reform will lower prescription drug costs for people in the Part D, “doughnut hole,” protect access to doctors, prevent costly and avoidable hospital readmissions, improve quality of care and eliminate billions of dollars in waste that is causing poor care and medical errors. Right now, preventable hospital readmissions alone cost Medicare billions of dollars.
Another rumor favored by those who oppose the reform is that care would be rationed. Health care reform will not give the government the power to make important health care decisions, regardless of a person’s age. Those decisions will be made by individuals, their doctors and their families.
The most important issue to the Virgin Islands, parity for the territories or equal treatment with respect to federal health care funding, is not being discussed at all. In fact, parity for the territories only appears in one of the bills currently being proposed. Reforms must include provisions that will allow the Virgin Islands to receive funding for health care programs on an equal basis as states. We deserve no less consideration than any other jurisdiction when it comes to health care.
And finally, the rumors turn to cost and state that Americans can’t afford the reform. The truth is that we, as Americans, cannot afford what we have now. Any one of us could be one serious illness away from financial ruin. If we do nothing to fix health care, families with Medicare or employer-based health coverage will likely see their premiums nearly double again within the next seven years.
As you continue learning about the work being done by Congress to reform health care, please keep a cool head and remember, there are large companies which stand to lose money, power and control over the health care industry. They do not want to see health care reform that will alter their ability to make excessive profits.
Health care should be a right available to all Americans. Please do not let the obstructionists and naysayers with partisan interests prevent you from gaining full access to this right. Get the facts about health reform and learn about the latest myths and scare tactics by going to HealthActionNow.org.
Editor’s note: Dr. Paul Simmonds is a former international businessman and retired professor from the University of the Virgin Islands Business Division. Dr. Simmonds currently serves as a visiting professor to the University of the West Indies in Jamaica each summer.
