State rep. tackles health care costs

With the cost of health care on the rise, many Hoosiers are wondering how they will be able to pay for health services. Several meetings took place Tuesday in Bloomington to discuss the creation of new policies designed to lower healthcare costs. State Rep. Peggy Welch, D-Bloomington, attended the meetings and favors lower healthcare costs for all residents of Indiana. \n"The meetings for us were brainstorm sessions on how we can improve the state's health care system," said Melanie Bella, assistant secretary for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration and director of the state Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning. \nTuesday's meetings were created to gather more information about the state's Chronic Disease Management Program. The program was designed to help Indiana residents with obesity, diabetes, asthma or heart disease create in-depth plans to improve their health. \nAccording to Welch's Web site, the Chronic Disease Management Program is expected to have as many as 50,000 people enrolled. This allows physicians and nurses to work directly with people using Medicaid. Physicians will be able to create a detailed health plan for the individual. People enrolled in the program will be able to receive regular medical assessments, education about their diseases, dietary plans that can help manage chronic diseases and instructions on how to manage their own care.\nBella said she believes providing information to the public about the dangers of chronic diseases will help drive health care costs down. \n"Everyone realizes that healthcare costs are rising too high for any typical Indiana resident to pay for," Bella said. "As a state, we need to improve Indiana's healthcare system because poor health is causing the cost of health care to rise."\nA study by Dr. James Mark shows that Indiana is in the top 10 out of all 50 states for number of people dying from cancer and in the top 15 for number of people dying from heart disease in 2002. Cancer death and heart disease rates are twice as high and the diabetes death rate is up to three times worse for blacks compared to the rates for whites.\n"Chronic care is very important to the Bloomington area, close to 75 percent of the health care dollar in Indiana goes to chronic illnesses," said state Health Commissioner Gregory Wilson. \n"The meetings today were to create a goal in which we can spread knowledge and awareness of chronic illness to citizens, employers and the health care providers," Wilson said. \nWilson provided a Web site, www.in.gov/isdh/programs, for Indiana residents to visit to learn about chronic illnesses and prevention. \n"It is a Web site developed by the state's Department of Health, which Hoosiers can have access to educational tools to help be aware of chronic illnesses," Wilson said.\nSenior Dayna Nichols believes informing Indiana residents about preventing chronic illness is excellent. Nichols is planning to graduate from college at the end of this semester and will soon have to pay for her own health insurance. \n"I think it is great that the local government is willing to take the effort to help lower the cost of health care," Nicholas said. "Informing people about the risks of chronic illness is important. Since America has a high obesity percentage, it is important that people are aware of the dangers of being overweight." \n-- Contact staff writer Nick Pittman at npittman@indiana.edu.