Olver: County Will See More Community Health Programs
 Before giving his lecture, the former professor served a lunch of beef burgundy to seniors. Elder Services ensures hundreds of meals are served to elders throughout the county each day. |
That was the message from U.S. Rep. John W. Olver on Thursday to some 60 seniors and others at the Ralph Froio Senior Center. The congressman spent about 90 minutes at center, serving lunch and dining with his constituents before taking the microphone to explain how the reform would affect them.
"This is the most comprehensive reform of our health care system in two generations," said the Amherst Democrat, a strong supporter of the initiative. "So finally America is joining the industrialized world in making access to quality, affordable health-care insurance to everyone of our citizens."
Locally, it will mean an expansion of programs geared toward preventive health and the further development of community health centers, such as the Community Health Programs in South County that is expanding into central Berkshire.
He expected within five years to see such a program in North County as well.
"We are providing $11 billion in the legislation that will be funding for community health centers that will provide new investment in primary care, nursing, public health and professional training," said Olver. Some 20 million people already get their care from health centers; that's expected to double in the next five years.
While seniors will have access to the centers the main beneficiaries of the health center initiative will be the more than 30 million Americans now without access to primary care. Many of those are their grandchildren, said Olver.
"They're almost all young people, just starting their families and they need primary preventive care in those years ... in order to avoid having a crises of health," said the congressman, and the focus on preventive care and early diagnoses will help today's young people lead healthier, longer lives.
 Mayor James Ruberto steps in to help the congressman explain a Medicare issue. |
Olver's explanations were mainly met with applause, although several people expressed skepticism over the ability of the government to expand coverage without it costing more. "If we have to pay for all those people, how can costs not go up?" asked one woman.
Tom Hurlbut of Pittsfield agreed: "You're putting more people to the program it seems that's going to add more cost to the program," adding that younger people are the hardest to get to buy insurance, which would leave the rest of the population to take up the cost.
Olver said a more aggressive policy on attacking fraud and abuse in Medicare and insurance and by eliminating the oversubsidization of insurance companies will bring savings and reduce costs over the next two decades.
"The most recent estimate I've seen of fraud is $200 billion from fraudulent [Medicare] claims," he said. Savings over the next decade would amount to a few hundred billion but would rise to a trillion in the second, said Olver, based on the calculations of the Congressional Budget Office.
If nothing was done, the Medicare Insurance Trust was expected to run out of funds by 2017, he said.
But his patience wore thin with another woman who believed she wouldn't be covered in the future and cited some bad anecdotes about other national health-care plans. Olver cited statistics about the nation's shorter life expectancy and high infant mortality rate, his voice rising.
Afterward, Olver said "of course" he was passionate about health care.
"I think that it's a disaster, I think it is just shameful that we have [these] statistics," he said. "... We allow our citizens to suffer the kind of loss of young lives to diabetes, to cancer and heart disease at such a young age ... what a waste of American lives."
