Minutes from General Business Meeting
July 22, 2009
Health Care Forum
 
Meeting called to order by Meg Sheketoff, Chair

• Introduction of Be The Change Baederwood (BTCB) inception and purpose
• Overview of the agenda for the evening
• Highlights for upcoming meetings
• Introduced Austin Hall, Chair of the Health Care Committee
  
  • Austin introduced the panel member
    
    • Mark Stier, Health Care Action Network [HCAN]
    • Karen Gurmankin, Community Liaison for Congresswoman Schwartz
    • Solomon Jones, Community Spokesperson for Congressman Fattah
    • Matt Vehey, Community Liaison for State Rep. Shapiro
    • Joe Ellis, Community Liaison for State Rep. Curry

 
Each panel member was asked to speak to the group

• Mr. Stier, HCAN spoke at length and explained to the group the myriad of issues concerning the health care needs and current state. Mr. Stier described the need for action and suggested ways we could each get involved and make change. There are telephone banks throughout the state. Each bank was targeting congressional districts where the representative was undeclared or opposed to health care reform. The phone banks were in Erie, Pittsburgh area, Reading, Lehigh Valley and Philadelphia. Everyone was asked to call as often as possible to our Senators, Congressman and state our support of health care reform. Write to our elected official’s, encourage our neighbors, friends and relatives to do the same.
  
  • Then Mr. Stier provided his website: http://www.hcanpa.org and a telephone number to assist you with contacting your Senator or Congressperson, 1-877-264-4226.
• Matt Vehey, spoke about State Rep. Shapiro being selected to a White House panel consisting of approximately 35 elected officials throughout the country who were to gather information from stakeholders. Specifically, physicians, hospitals, insurers, patients, nurses, nursing / rehab homes, other medical providers to solicit their thoughts and then to produce a report to convey what they learned and this information to President Obama.
• Solomon Jones, expressed to the group he had just spoken to Congressman Fattah as he arrived and that Rep. Fattah supported the health care bill and would vote for the house version. Rep. Fattah has links to the bill on his website. Mr. Jones then reiterated to the group the importance of calling and making your voice heard. The opposition has been vocal, vehement and called often. Therefore, those who wanted reform should make sure they were as vocal and called to express their views.
• Karen Gurmankin from Congresswoman Schwartz’ office explained her role was to be the eyes and ear on the ground for Rep. Schwartz. Ms. Gurmankin discussed briefly that Rep. Schwartz was an active participant in drafting the house legislation for health care reform. Ms. Gurmankin suggested everyone acquaint themselves with the issues and suggested a website which provided a synopsis of the 1,000 page bill, [Rep. Steny Hoyer] http://majorityleader.house.gov/members/health_care.cfm but also stated the bill in it’s entirety was available via a link on Rep. Schwartz website. Ms. Gurmankin closed by encouraging everyone to call the office, speak to a legislative aide and make our voices and opinions heard.
• Joe Ellis from State Rep. Curry’s office spoke briefly and encouraged those in attendance to call State Rep. Curry with pertinent matters and Rep. Curry is always happy to hear from his constituents.
• Meg Sheketoff, read questions, which were submitted at the beginning and throughout the meeting. 
  
  • EDITORIAL NOTE – A synopsis of the questions are below. It isn’t a complete list as some questions were duplicated.
    
    • What is the structure of the proposed house proposal?
      
      • Please review Rep. Hoyers’ abridged version or visit Rep. Fattah or Schwartz’ webpage for the full version of the bill.
    • What was President Obama’s vision of health care reform?
      
      • The White House had proposed no plan. It was suggested that was on purpose to encourage lawmakers to craft their own and to stymie the opposition.
    • Would the plan be modeled after Medicare, Medicaid or some other plan?
      
      • The proposed House bill was an amalgam.
    • Would the plan resemble Tricare?
      
      • Not sure
      • Would best practices be used? There is best practice study from Aetna
    • How would small businesses be affected or how could they benefit?
    • Would small business have to participate? What was the downside if they didn’t?
    • What penalties or taxation would be levied?
      
      • The answer to these questions were small businesses could buy from an exchange and then be able to obtain lower group rates. If they choose not to participate, they may have to pay an extra 1-2% in taxes, depends on the final compromise between the house and senate versions of the legislation.
    • Would medical care providers be encouraged to share tests and results or better yet discouraged from reordering tests previously administered?
      
      • This question was not fielded in conversation.
    • Was the group aware that large corporations and government entities were self-insured? The implications were that self insured companies

Petitions from OFA were distributed and 50 signatures were collected. 
 
Respectfully submitted,
Marsha Levell
Webmaster, Recording Secretary BTCB