Health Care

By Connie Pillich

Too few Ohioans have access to affordable health care. We can take some simple steps now to move toward repairing this.

As a society, we should take care of our children. We need to make it possible for all children to have health care. We should also take care of our elderly, and ensure their access to health care, as well.

But what about everyone in between?

Ohio's national lead in personal bankruptcies and home foreclosures stems largely from people swamped with enormous medical bills that they cannot pay. Declaring bankruptcy does nothing to pay the bill. Doctors and hospitals don't get paid for their services, so they must pass those losses on to us who do pay. And we end up paying higher insurance premiums to cover that.

Other states are launching innovative solutions to this same problem. They are experimenting with single-payer systems. In Ohio, we need a hybrid of private and public health insurance.

I propose that we allow individuals and small businesses to buy into the state employees health insurance system. This is perhaps the largest group in the state, and with that size of a group, it can negotiate good premiums.

Use this state insurance system as the basis for providing insurance to all who wish to purchase it. We must cover our children and elderly, regardless of our means. Healthy children grow into healthy, productive adults. When parents have the means to provide preventive care to their children, it means greater cost savings later: prevention is always cheaper than treating the illness after it's progressed. And prevention means fewer missed days of school and work.