Health-Care Reform Is National, State Need

During the just-passed midterm elections, the candidates who won representing the Northwest Corner all targeted health-care reform as a major issue to be addressed once they were elected. State Sen. Andrew Roraback (R-30) summed up the problem well in a pre-election interview with The Lakeville Journal (Oct. 19): "Democratic, Republican and unaffiliated voters all get sick. This issue transcends party lines and political philosophies. The system now isn’t working for anyone..." Roraback, state Rep. Roberta Willis (D-64) and our new U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy (D-5) all spoke of the imminent need for an overhaul of both the state and national health-care systems. The answer they saw as most viable is a switch to universal health care.

Murphy emphasized the importance of health-care reform being addressed on a national level. He served as chairman of the Public Health Committee in the state senate, and saw the problems that arose in trying to initiate change there. But with Massachusetts being one of the first states to pass a bill that provides a structure in which its citizens are covered one way or another for medical care, Connecticut has a model to emulate. Can such change happen without breaking the bank and creating new taxes? Murphy believes (Lakeville Journal, Oct. 19) universal health care would cost us less, not more, than the current system.

Whatever the new model is for health-care reform, our elected officials need to make good on their campaign promises once they are in place with their respective legislative bodies. There needs to be serious thought and discussion given to this issue to bring the best solutions to light. One such discussion is taking place this Friday, Dec. 8, at a public forum at The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville on ways to bring health care to all Americans. Attend this forum, sponsored by The Salisbury Forum and the Foundation for Community Health, where presenter Dr. Deborah Richter will both speak and encourage discourse. For some well-informed information on the need for health care reform, and more on Friday’s open forum, see the guest commentary by Dr. Richard N. Collins on this week’s Viewpoint page.

As our legislators know, the issue of health-care reform is a tough one, with many complexities, but one that must be taken on directly and quickly. And only by sharing information among the experts, the public and health-care consumers, as will happen at Friday’s Salisbury Forum, will the solutions for reforming our health-care system become clear.

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