PORT TOWNSEND — U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks addressed a relatively easy audience Monday when it came to health care reform.
Most voiced support for the plan, which Dicks called “a work in progress” that would not meet legislative muster unless it paid for itself.
Addressing more than 100 attending Monday’s Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce luncheon — attended by Port Townsend Police Chief Conner Daily and Sgt. Ed Green, who were there to keep the peace — Dicks said: “A lot of people have lost health insurance since the economic downturn.”
He said 47 million Americans are without health insurance, and the system is “unsustainable.”
Medicare reform
A congressman from Belfair since 1977, Dicks said Medicare also needs reform after 40 years.
“If we do get reform, we can reduce the cost of Medicare by 30 percent,” he said, adding that much of the problem is the result of health care providers over-prescribing medication and medical testing that drives up the cost.
It would be the only chance to create a “public option,” Dicks said, a chance to extend a government health insurance program such as Medicare, and make it open to all while reducing costs.
The House health care reform bill calls for a surcharge on households with incomes of more than $350,000 a year, Dicks said.
Three bills are working their way through Congress, Dicks said. “They will be put into a single bill based on what we’ve heard from the American people.”
Dicks answered several questions after setting a ground rule — remarks must be stated in a “non-antagonistic way and on a substantive basis.”
Those in support of reform included Chuck Russell, chairman of the Jefferson Healthcare hospital board, and Tim Hockett, executive director of Olympic Community Action Program.
“I want reform,” Hockett said. “We see families coming in that have lost their homes” because they are paying for uninsured cancer treatments.
Public option
Dicks said he contacted an White House staffer Monday morning because there were reports that the president was backing away from the public option.
“I think that a public option is crucial to getting this done,” Dicks said.
Under the plan, people will be allowed to keep their health care plan unless the employer changes it.
Citing rumors that reform would create “death panels” that would determine who lives and dies, Dicks said: “That’s totally ludicrous.”
He blamed former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin for spreading the rumor on the Facebook social Internet site.
Small-business ‘friend’
Dicks was introduced by Deputy Mayor George Randels and Nelson Ludlow, president of Intellicheck Mobilisa, who called Dicks “a friend of small business,” including his Port Townsend company, which employs 65 and has benefited from military contracts with Dicks’ help.
Dicks said Mobilisa would be launching buoys in Strait of Juan de Fuca waters off the Sequim-Dungeness Valley and Port Angeles that will monitor water quality to help clean up Puget Sound and can detect “a dirty bomb” on a cargo ship in an effort to counteract potential terrorism.
________
Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
