Whatever health-insurance reform might pass Congress this fall bodes well for the territory, speakers said during the opening of the Virgin Islands State Health Insurance Program’s annual Medicare symposium Wednesday at Divi Carina Bay Resort.
"I am extremely encouraged right now about the prospects for health care reform and prospects for improving health care for the people who have been mostly left out of it," said Human Services Commissioner Christopher Finch during remarks at the opening of the symposium.
While some in the media may be saying reform is faltering, the facts on the ground suggest otherwise, said Finch.
"Thinking back to a year ago, we could not have predicted we would be on the eve of a major presidential speech on health care and several bills in Congress with an emphasis on health care such as we have not seen since President Clinton."
Because territories are treated differently than states, there is much less Medicaid funding for the Virgin Islands than a similar population would receive on the mainland, acting Health Commissioner Julia Sheen-Aaron reminded the audience of health care and Human Services professionals.
"The end result is our Medicaid program covers far fewer of our population than programs in the states," she said. "With that and the economy as it is, yes this is a bad time. But as Mr. Finch said, these are also exciting times."
Prescription drugs and Medicare, claims processing, stimulus funding for health care and end stage renal disease are a few of the topics to be examined over the two and a half days of talks and workshops. Representatives from the New York regional office of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who helped put together the symposium, are there, as are professionals from the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services.
The goal is to give medical providers, Medicare partners, advocates and recipients more information and bring the stakeholders into brainstorming sessions on how to improve the programs’ outreach to the community.
