The health care reform debate, at times, has sounded less like a policy discussion and more like a tabloid talk show. So the Channel 8 I-Team invited five local doctors -- Dr. Richard Chudacoff, Dr. Carl Heard, Dr. Joe Hardy, Dr. Beverly Neyland and Dr. Frank Memec -- to share a physician's perspective of the overhaul debate.
Colleen McCarty: "Do we need healthcare reform?"
Doctors: "Yes. Yes, yes," was the response from all of them.
Colleen McCarty: "Unequivocally, everybody says yes."
Doctors: "Yes."
"The areas that are broken are the people that can't get insurance -- the people who become ill and lose their insurance. The rising health care premiums that are doubling every seven years and it's a system that's not sustainable," said Dr. Frank Nemec, gastroenterologist.
The four existing reform proposals target two main goals: Expanding access and lowering costs.
"I think those are the right goals. I think how we get to those goals is going to be the sticking point," said Dr. Barbara Neyland, pediatrician.
"If we have to distill it to one issue, it should be everybody is covered by the health care system and everybody contributes through the course of their lifetime, so that when they start to consume health care benefits that they will have contributed to the pool that will cover those health care expenses," said Dr. Carl Heard with Nevada Health Centers.
The plans require all individuals to have health insurance that is provided either by their employer, individually by a health insurance exchange or pool, or by the government. Those who refuse may face a tax penalty.
Several websites offer health care reform information
"If we have something that's affordable, something that's available, there will still be people who say I would rather not have anything," said Dr. Joe Hardy, family practice and Nevada state assemblyman.
Colleen McCarty: "Should they be allowed to say they don't want coverage?"
"I think we live in this land of the free and so there is a freedom there that people have the right to refuse care even," he said.
The proposals assume that greater access and competition will drive down costs, an issue that remains a key centerpiece of the debate. But the doctors agree that health care reform must first begin with health insurance reform.
"We have tremendous profiteering by the insurance companies -- tremendous profiteering by the pharmaceutical companies. More and more money's being diverted to these for profit interests and less and less for treating patients who need the care," said Nemec.
"I don't think we should be calling them health care insurance companies, I think we should be calling them health care money managers, it takes so much money away from the healthcare dollar," said Dr. Richard Chudacoff, gynecologist.
And that is where the agreement ends.
