Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 4, 1993 TAG: 9309090322
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ARTHUR A. COIA
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
My treatment has been an ordeal, as one might expect. It started with costly once-a-month chemotherapy sessions that leave me with nausea, severe pain and hair loss. This will be followed by daily radiation treatments lasting for several weeks. To counteract the nausea, I take a pill that costs $80. Injections that will help rebuild my blood cells will cost $150 each. All told, the costs of my treatment will be enormous - probably into the six figures.
Nevertheless, even under these circumstances, I am one of the lucky ones. As president of the Laborers' International Union of North America, I have a comprehensive health plan that covers these expenses - at little out-of-pocket cost to me - and provides for my treatment at the renowned Dana Farber Clinic in Boston.
Why is the cost of adequate health care so high? Unfair profiteering by drug companies? Probably, in some cases. The cost of scientific advancements? Yes, in part. But the single biggest contributor to skyrocketing medical costs is the best argument of all to those who fear the expense of providing universal coverage. I call it the discount health-care dilemma.
We've become a nation of discounters - passing the bill to those down the line who can be depended on to pay. But discounting is a marketing device for the retail industry. It cannot and should not be applied - as it is today - to health-care practice.
If I were not one of the lucky ones, but instead was among the 37 million uninsured Americans, how would I have handled many illnesses? What if I were poor? Probably, I would have waited, putting myself at further risk, and eventually sought care at an emergency room. With few financial resources, the cost to me would be minimal - I would receive discounted health care. The collective cost to you - the taxpaying members of working health-care systems - would be great.
Scenarios like this take place every day and are one of the primary reasons for the high price of health care. The solution to the discount health-care dilemma is providing immediate universal health care to all Americans.
For those fortunate ones with favorable health benefits who are concerned with taking on new costs associated with universal coverage, consider that we already pay for the uninsured through higher premiums (reflecting higher hospital billing to compensate for the cost of indigent care) and taxes. Better to bring them in the system, where preventive care and cost controls can apply, than to leave them on the outside where, if they're lucky, they receive discounted health care to the expense of all.
The heartrending sight of children battling cancer at Dana Farber's Jimmy Fund Clinic, an inspiration to this 49-year-old cancer patient, has strengthened my conviction that universal coverage is of vital national importance. The Jimmy Fund pays for the care of children whose parents are unemployed and uninsured. These kids are fortunate that Farber has a foundation to pay for their care (as well as uninsured adults). But few of their peers are so fortunate.
At the trade union I represent, we have always made health care, along with workplace safety protections, a top priority in negotiations for one reason: When you get to the heart of it, the other major components of a contract such as wages and job security, important as they are, matter little if you're not around to appreciate them. The quality of human life must always come first and should never be discounted.
I hope the White House takes the same approach as it develops a minimum health-benefits package for Americans.
\ Arthur A. Coia is general president of the Laborers International Union of North America, representing 800,000 workers in the construction, service, manufacturing, health care and hazardous waste cleanup industries in the United States and Canada.
by CNB