Children & Families Must Be First Priority for Health Care

Today's Congressional Quarterly (CQ) reports that the top worries of some rural Members of Congress are as follows:

• Greater cost containment
• More generous exemptions for small business to evade paying even a portion of the cost of insurance for their employees, and
• Changes to the government-run plan that Democrats want to create to compete with private sector insurers.

Our question. When will rural members of Congress start prioritizing children and families' need for more affordable coverage over the wants of health insurance companies? It would be better if these members -- conservatives and moderates -- would start prioritizing keeping rural hospitals open and fee for service so that rural communities that recruit doctors have a better chance keeping them.

If you've got the same worries we do about whether Congress is willing to pass a true reform of the health care industry -- a reform that prioritizes access and affordability for families, then be careful about these (good) words as you watch the debate:

1. Cost containment. A lot of folks talk about "cost containment" as a goal, but let's be clear: cost containment must apply to the cost of health care for families first.
   
2. Access for all. Every family needs their own family doctor, so they don't have to rely upon more expensive emergency room services.
   
3. Pre-existing conditions. ... Meaning big insurance companies that are already arguing against change, could actually be required to accept all customers -- no more cherry-picking as to which customer is the healthiest.
4. Public option. Another good word -- meaning that the private health insurers would get competition in the form of a government-sponsored plan that would allow you to pick your own doctor.
   
5. Single Payer. No, not a bad word but rather a good word that already defines Medicare, a system that works well for our seniors.
6. Working Poor. Careful on this one ... it really means people who work but can't afford the sometimes thousands of dollars a single health insurance policy costs, but opponents of affordable health care often use it as a means of disparaging those who can't afford health care now.