In congress' hands
What the healthcare debate means for North Dakotans, students.
Terran Chambers
Issue date: 11/20/09 Section: News
On Monday, the Political Science Honorary Society, Pi Sigma Alpha, along with the Public Affairs Club, Masters of Public Administration Student Organization and Omicron Delta Epsilon (economics honorary), organized and presented a panel of health care officials to speak with students about the current reform bill before Congress.
Issues
The first question the panelists were asked was whether or not they believed a public health care option would lower the costs of health care in North Dakota. Dwight Thompson, CFO of Obligated Group and Affiliated Corporations and Altru Health System employee, expressed his doubt saying, "It's hard to imagine taking care of 35 million more people and lowering costs. I just don't see it happening." Panelist Rod St. Aubyn, who previously served on the Human Services Committee of the ND Legislature and current director of Government Relations for Noridian Mutual Insurance Company (Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota) echoed his opinion when he talked about reimbursement rates for North Dakota being significantly lower than most states. Because the federal government has not kept up with the costs, it has shifted to private insurance. If the private sector lowers its reimbursement rate to that of a public option, St. Aubyn fears the area will lose specialists and facilities. Tim Sayler, COO for Altru Health Systems has been with the company since 1983, agreed, saying, "Overall costs will increase because someone has to pay for it."
Joshua Wynne, interim vice president for Health Affairs and interim dean of the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences and practicing cardiologist, explained to the audience that 45 million people in America currently are uninsured. 10 million of those are disregarded since they are not US citizens, leaving 35 million uninsured people to work with. Of those, one quarter choose not to be insured. The other three quarters are assumed to either be too poor or too sick to have health insurance.
Issues
The first question the panelists were asked was whether or not they believed a public health care option would lower the costs of health care in North Dakota. Dwight Thompson, CFO of Obligated Group and Affiliated Corporations and Altru Health System employee, expressed his doubt saying, "It's hard to imagine taking care of 35 million more people and lowering costs. I just don't see it happening." Panelist Rod St. Aubyn, who previously served on the Human Services Committee of the ND Legislature and current director of Government Relations for Noridian Mutual Insurance Company (Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota) echoed his opinion when he talked about reimbursement rates for North Dakota being significantly lower than most states. Because the federal government has not kept up with the costs, it has shifted to private insurance. If the private sector lowers its reimbursement rate to that of a public option, St. Aubyn fears the area will lose specialists and facilities. Tim Sayler, COO for Altru Health Systems has been with the company since 1983, agreed, saying, "Overall costs will increase because someone has to pay for it."
Joshua Wynne, interim vice president for Health Affairs and interim dean of the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences and practicing cardiologist, explained to the audience that 45 million people in America currently are uninsured. 10 million of those are disregarded since they are not US citizens, leaving 35 million uninsured people to work with. Of those, one quarter choose not to be insured. The other three quarters are assumed to either be too poor or too sick to have health insurance.
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