Mrs. Johnson Goes to Washington
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Loretta Johnson, a 62-year-old health care worker from Lebanon, Va., has joined the fight in Washington, D.C., for health care reform.
ABINGDON, Va. – Loretta Johnson is a 62-year-old health care worker who can’t afford health insurance, so she’s decided to do something about it.
Johnson, of Lebanon, Va., has taken leave from her job as a personal care assistant to go to Washington to lobby for health care reform – and try to help legislators put a human face on a complex problem.
“I’m not old enough for Medicare and don’t qualify for Medicaid,” Johnson said. “I am paying on a hospital bill right now from two years ago when I was diagnosed with a heart attack.”
A former deputy court clerk, Johnson said she quit her job in 2000 to take care of her sick husband until his death in 2005 – then took care of her father until he passed away. Two years ago, she started her job as a personal care assistant.
Her lobbying effort is funded by the Service Employees International Union. She’s been in Washington since February and plans to stay through the summer; she said she is one of a dozen grassroots lobbyists from across the country who are working together on the effort.
“The union has allowed us the vehicle to be here, but we are lobbying for our communities,” Johnson said. “Affordable health coverage for every citizen in Southwest Virginia: affordable means that a lot of the people in Southwest Virginia are elderly, on a fixed income, or not working at all. So it has to be something that covers that realm of people.”
In Washington, Johnson is visiting senators and representatives, writing letters, rallying in front of government buildings and attending Congressional hearings.
Her support is for a proposed plan that would provide government-run health insurance available to all citizens, which she said would provide “affordable, good quality health care” for everyone. She said this plan should provide access to health care coverage for small businesses, people with pre-existing conditions, older workers like herself and other hard-to-insure groups. She said it would result in competition with private plans, driving down the cost of the insurance and the cost of care.
Opponents of a government health care system argue it would do the opposite, resulting in reduced efficiency, higher costs and lower standards of care – meaning harm would come to patients, including people like her. Opponents also point to the higher U.S. survival rates of cancer and other illnesses compared to those in industrialized nations with government-run health care systems.
“The President has called it a public option, but unfortunately, the way that things would work if we have a public health insurance plan, it’s going to be paid for by taxpayers and it will be able to set its prices as low as the Congress decides, so it would quickly drive private insurance out of business and would leave us with only the public plan,” said Amy Menefee, policy advisor for the Americans for Prosperity Foundation.
Menefee said more personalized care – and low-cost clinics that treat minor illness and serve cash patients – are the way the health care industry is evolving, along with a flurry of other innovations.
“The only thing that’s going to truly bring down cost is to have more competition for our business as consumers in the health care market,” Menefee said.
Her organization also has put a human face on the health care debate – that of Canadian Shona Holmes, who mortgaged her house and came to the United States for life-saving medical treatment after being placed on lengthy waiting lists in her own country.
Menefee said the same thing would happen here under a government plan: long waiting lists for government-rationed care and higher taxes on the middle class to pay for a substandard system. Meanwhile, added bureaucracy would increase the cost, the burden on doctors and drive people out of the medical profession, she said.
Menefee said she has a better solution: Let the medical community continue health care innovation that is merely in its infancy – and provide tax incentives to increase options and accessibility to health care.
Meanwhile, Johnson, who left Southwest Virginia in hopes of prodding national-scale reform, said her work to get a government plan won’t stop when she gets back home – even if it means just hosting house parties to write letters to congressmen about the issue.
She said reform is coming – and she believes it will make things easier on people like her.
“Every time I walk up the front of the Capitol, I still get goosebumps,” she said. “Our history is being made every day, and I am a part of it. ... I am honored to be here.”
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Reader Reactions
I’m reminded of what I heard someone say just the other day regarding government verses private health insurance. “It’s like a duck and an alligator competing for the same pond.“
With all due respec to Mrs. Johnson, because I’m sure she means well. The statement, “quality affordable healthcare for all,“ has been done to death. The Federal government is bankrupt. Eleven trillion and counting in direct debt, and fifty trillion plus in unfunded liabilities. There is no money!
Medicare and Medicaid, the two federal programs now in operation, are by all observations poorly administered, and they are broke or nearly broke as well. Why do we need yet another government program? Why would anyone be foolish enough to believe that the most wasteful, inept, and corrupt organization in the world, the federal government, could run anything? I’ll tell you it baffles the mind!
RadioBill said- “Tonight Rep (Dr) Roe will be speaking at the Tea party being held at Sugar Hollow Park 6-8 pm. What person would be more qualified to tell you what is in the health care plan, the plus and minus of it”.
Sorry I won’t be able to make it. I’ve got better things to do, like clip my toenails. However, if you would do me a favor, tell Dr. Roe that all the American people expect in health care is the same insurance he and the rest of Congress have. We’re all in this together so we should all have the same coverage available as he does.
I do believe their needs to be change.
We are headed down a very slippery dangerous road. I myself am uninsured and pay out of pocket for everything. Most places do give a discount for people that are of moderate or lower income that pay cash. You just have to ask. But, I do not think that Universal Healthcare is the answer to our problems. I think some control over charges by the healthcare industry is more what we need. A facility should not be able to charge me for a whole box of latex gloves because they used one pair. There are 500 gloves in a box. Therefore, they get 250 uses out of each box..if they use two at a time which they often do not but every patient that comes in gets charged for the whole box. Explain that. I should not be charged ten dollars for an aspirin or regular tylenol, I can buy a whole bottle for less than that and I know they pay a small fraction of what I would. If they could control these costs then insurance wounldn’t have to pay so much and wouldn’t cost so much.
Health care in the US is about 17% gdp and rising at double digit rate each year, which soon will be near 20%. This is twice any other modern country in the world, yet with so many insured here. If the insurance companies and providers could (would) have solved the problem, we would not be having these debates. They have not- their goal is to increase costs and profits. Until some of you right-winger can come up with a solution, stop being part of the problem and don’t criticize those who are working for the best for all.
Just look at everything else that the government has controlled. The medicaid programs are bankrupt, the medicare program is nearly bankrupt, social security will be bankrupt in a few years…yeah..we want them running the whole countries healthcare. Years ago I was fortunate enough to have medicaid as an insurance plan. An unfortunate situation but glad it was there for me. But, even then there were drugs that I was unable to get and dearly needed. If you are allergic to the antibiotics that are covered that’s just tough, if you are allergic to the pain relievers that are covered, then that’s just tough. If you need a treatment that isn’t covered, well, then you are just out of luck. Mrs. Johnson, if you can afford to cover all these things that are not covered, why can’t you afford insurance.
I am in favor of health care reform, but not in the way it is being sold to us or lobbied by well-meaning people such as Mrs. Johnson. You see, the current health care crisis is one of our own making. The problem is that we have demanded health insurance, as if that is the answer to our health care needs. As a child, I remember when the UAW bargained for and received health and dental insurance for its members and the day after the contract was ratified, every doctor and dentist in our town doubled the rates for their services, not because their services were worth twice as much, but just because they saw it as a way to get rich in a hurry. Since then, the insurance companies are the ones that have capitalized on the “health care crisis” and they are the ones who are getting rich. I have health insurance but I also have a $1000 deductible. After payng the premium, I can’t afford to go to the doctor.
The answer is not to adopt universal health care but to take away the incentive to gouge the consumer. For example, encourage and allow doctors to go back to a system where patients are rewarded for paying cash for their own health care. There is/was a clinic in Greenville, TN that operated that way and you knew going in what a procedure or treatment would cost. Insurance was not accepted. Second, eliminate the ridiculous and excessive malpractice lawsuits that have driven up the cost of health care. This often occurs because of greed on the part of we the people. The truth is, everyone is going to die at some time. Who is to say whether a doctor caused the death through malpractice or it was just a case of not being able to save someone’s life, and for that no doctor should be sued or held responsible.
Mrs Johnson, I will add the following since you responded to me.
First, private enterprise, i.e. insurance companies, CAN NOT compete with government run healthcare. Period. Again, a little research on your part would help you tremendously here. It IS a known fact that IF this single payor healthplan does get passed and the Obama Administration is ‘spinning it’ as they do everything else, that ‘you will be able to keep your private healthcare plan’ however, when the cost of government healthcare is initially cheaper, and it will be to attract people, where pray tell do you think the majority of people will go? No brainer here Mrs Johson. People always gravitate for the ‘cheapest’ and expect the quality to be the same—particularly in healthcare. Mrs Johnson, I will say, ‘you-get-what-you-pay-for.‘ and nothing government runs it is better or cheaper than private enterprise. It seems that people believe the government WILL provide the same exact quality healthcare plan we have now. WRONG! The only way heathcare costs can be controlled is thru RATIONING! Do YOU want your heathcare RATIONED Mrs Johnson? You said you already have health issues and with 77 million baby boomers entering their ‘golden years’ where health issues manifest themselves, where do you think costs will be controlled most?! On the backs of the baby-boomers! They will be told to ‘go home and make their final arrangements as their medications or treatments are NOT covered. How would you like your healthplan then IF you were one of those people who needed a prescription or a treatment and were denied? and Mrs Johnson, IF you don’t have a prescription for a drug, you can’t buy it! Your physician would have to write you a script and if it wasn’t approved or on ‘the list’ you would not be buying anything Mrs Johnson! It would not be allowed! So your comment about ‘you would pay for it same as you are doing now, is again WRONG! The physician will not be able to write you a prescription the government does not allow! Your healthcare will be under the direct control of the government healthcare ‘panel.‘ When people begin to migrate to the goverment run healthcare plan, there will be health insurance companies with very few left on their plan(s) and they can not ‘compete’ in this business model. (your re-iterating the Obama mantra about ‘you can keep your plan if you like it, tells me you know nothing about how a business is run, and how profits are made)rather you appear to only know about something that is being being ‘spun’ to where people like yourself will fall for it!
Once people ‘leave’ their private health plans, either because of choice, or because their employer decided to ‘dump’ his group healthcare plan and the employees are forced off, the private insurers will cease to operate. Gone. Yes, BO and company will have ‘given you a choice’ and that IS what he wishes for you to believe! He is a master manipulator Mrs Johnson. Once the private insurers cease to operate, we will have single payor insurance with NO options! It will be too late to reverse it as once private healthcare is gone, it IS GONE! Then, as in Canada and England the cost will escalate! At that point, with no private health insurers, no other options, what do you believe the cost will be for a single payor system mrs Johnson? We will have government in total and complete control and I think everyone knows what happens when there is no free market competition….even you should know this Mrs. Johnson…if Wall Mart was the only store in Virginia, what do you think the prices would be like? Same as they are now? I don’t think so…..
Mrs Johnson, BEFORE you go, please take the time to read CRITICAL—by Senator Tom Daschle and pay particular note to page164-174. These 10 pages if you read nothing else in the book will spell out what we are headed for. Rationing. No treatment, no drugs, no nothing, if the treatment is deemed too expensive by the ‘government run panel.‘ What kind of incentive will that be for the drug companies to develop new drugs Mrs Johnson? No incentive at all as it costs them a boatload of money to get one drug to market and drugs are initially very expensive as they are trying to re-coop their costs. Government run/controlled healthcare will kill a lot more than just 77 miillion baby boomers. Betcha you will think differently, IF it was you that needed the drug or the treatment and it wasn’t on their ‘list’...you want want the old plan back and then you could ‘buy it as you were doing.‘....however, it will be too late then, Mrs Johnson….
Tonight Rep (Dr) Roe will be speaking at the Tea party being held at Sugar Hollow Park 6-8 pm. What person would be more qualified to tell you what is in the health care plan, the plus and minus of it. And as we have read that all of the government programs are going broke which means in order to keep them afloat taxes will have to be raised. Adding another government run plan will be come a nightmare. I am not saying that health care should not be improved. But when the President shoots down tort reform then we know where his heart is at, with the trail lawyers, not health care. Tort reform would save health insurance companies millions of dollars, doctors would not have to run every conceivable test to prevent a malpractice suit. Never mind if there is a certain number of suits brought up against a doctor he/she can lose their license. A lawyer will take any case because of the amount of money they stand to make. The lawyers need to make money also, but lets keep them in check first before doing it to everyone else which President Obama is attempting to do. And in a government run program who are the lawyers going to sue for malpractice of not providing care and medicine that may lead to death? Time is now to take a stand. Health Care and Cap and Trade will break our backs, control every facet of our lives if we do not stand up!
Your comment was very interesting. First of all, the public option would allow you to keep your insurance if you like what you have. If you are in the Healthcare business, I hope none of your services are paid by Medicare or Medicaid, because both of these are government run insurances.
If I should find that my medications are not covered, I will do what I do now, find the cheapest place to get the meds needed and/or make payments to the Doctor or Hospital every month.
I am glad that you have insurance, because the way things are now you are helping pay for the people who do not have health coverage. Those people now have to wait until they can no longer wait, then go to the emergency room for treatment, and the cost of that gets passed on the people who do have health insurance.
No, I will no longer just sit home and keep my mouth shut, the cost of doing nothing is too great.
Why don’t you join me in Washington DC and help lower the cost of your insurance? When the public option is passed, the competition will lower the cost for people like you who now pay for the coverage they enjoy. But if at any time in your life, you should find yourself without health insurance then the plan that people like myself have worked for will be there for you also.
AMEN…AMEN….AMEN This is a vote for WakeUpAmerica’s clear and intelligent and well-read comment. When are Americans going to wake up and see that every facet of our lives is going to be controlled by the Soaclist people who have control of our government now?? Mrs. Johnson, you can go and lobby and talk and agree with health care reform that is being proposed by this leadership we have now, but don’t say you did not understand what was going to happen after it passes…there are too many informed and intelligent people who DO KNOW WHAT THIS PLAN IS and they are out sounding the alarn and ringing the bells to warn of danger every single day, if people would take the time to listen and read and get informed. Not only will this new health plan hurt healthccare ,it will break the backs of taxpayers even further. It is the beginning of the end for decent health care for everyone over 50, and even is not a good thing for younger people. Wise up!
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