Keene awaits health care bill impact

 

    On Nov. 7, the United States House of Representatives passed the Affordable Health Care for America Act by a vote of 220-215. The bill needs to be passed by the Senate before becoming law.

 

    Chief Financial Officer at Cheshire Medical Center Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene Clinic, Jill Batty, said she is waiting to see if the bill is passed, but believes the bill will  benefit the Keene community.

 

    “We're hopeful that a greater percentage of patients and Keene residents will be provided with affordable health care and be able to receive benefit without any financial barriers,” Batty said.

 

    Batty said if health care becomes more affordable for many in the community, Cheshire Medical could be better able to help patients looking for medical treatment.

 

    “At Dartmouth-Hitchcock we offer lots of financial benefits,” Batty said. “But not everyone takes advantage of that. We're hoping with affordable health insurance people are more willing to use our services.”

 

    Political science professor Wesley Martin said a bill making health care more affordable for Americans would be beneficial to people across the country.

 

    “Its clear that localities around the country have a difficult time providing health care for needy people and there's cross subsidization between the people who do have health insurance and the people who do not and show up in the emergency room,” Martin said. “I would have to surmise that and  it  will get better. I would expect a number of reduction in people without insurance. I'd expect a decline in bad debt burden of hospitals.” 

 

    “We would expect and we should expect, and I don't know if we'll see, nationally, insurance for all to reduce the cost per capita,” Martin said.

 

    Political science professor Chuck Weed said the biggest benefit the bill will have is providing health care to those in need.

 

    “I think there are something like 60,000 who are uninsured in New Hampshire and I think it would provide substantial relief to know that it was coming,” Weed said.

 

    Weed said he sees many problems with the current bill passed by the House, but thinks the option is better than nothing for many Americans lacking insurance.

 

    “The most important thing was a robust public option as close as we can get to single payer and we're about as far away as that as possible,” Weed said. “I think there's a huge profits built into this plan for insurance companies, so this is a plan the insurance companies like rather than the people. However it will be an improvement for people who don't have insurance now.”

 

    Weed and Martin said the biggest challenge the bill will face in Senate involves an amendment to the bill that would not subsidize abortions. The amendment is currently a hot-button debate in congress among democrats and republicans.

 

    “Not only will the federal government not subsidize abortions, which is current federal law, but the government will, under the new undertaking, decline to provide coverage and tax breaks for the insurance companies that provide abortion coverage,” Martin said. “It seems to be the current consensus in reading the House language, and I just don't think that it's going to survive.”

 

    Weed said he also believes the amendment could have a serious effect on whether the bill is passed by the Senate or not.

 

    “I think it's ludicrous,” said Weed. “I think it was deceptively put in the bill and I think it could destroy it completely, the whole reform package, and I'm sort of on the fence of whether I think it should.”

 

    Despite the current issues in the bill, Martin said he believes the Senate will pass a Health Care Reform bill.

 

    “Eventually, something will be passed by the Senate, but I don't think the House bill will be passed,” Martin said. “The more people who look at the bill it looks like the more there is to worry about the bill as passed by the House.”

 

    Weed agreed the Senate was likely to pass a bill, but was doubtful the bill in consideration now would be the bill that is passed.

 

    “I think that the message has gotten across pretty clearly to [democrats in congress] that, if this is not passed, then it's a death note to the majority of democrats in congress,” Weed said. “I think they're going to get that. I don't think that necessarily is going to make them progressive, but they're going to pass something that they're going to call reform.”