Citizens argue for public health care

The Bloomington Common Council heard emotionally charged testimony from citizens for and against a resolution supporting a plan for government-paid health insurance Wednesday night.\nA line of people formed when the floor was opened to the public at the council's most recent meeting.\n"The resolution is saying that the city of Bloomington, as a community, feels the health-care system is broken," said Andy Ruff, a council member and co-sponsor of the resolution. "We believe health care should be a right."\nThe resolution will be sent to state and federal representatives in hopes that they will form a publicly paid health insurance system. The council voted 7-0-2 to accept the resolution with council members David Sabbagh and Brad Wisler abstaining from the vote.\nRobert Stone, director of Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan and the state coordinator of Indiana's chapter of Physicians for a National Health Plan, supported the resolution at the meeting.\n"In 1994, 38 million Americans were without health insurance," Stone said. "Now there are 46 million."\nStone said a statement previously made by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels -- that people in Indiana already have health care because they can go to hospital emergency rooms -- was misleading.\nStone told a story about a man, diabetic and vomiting, who entered an emergency room last week. The man had run out of glucose strips to check his blood sugar and had to decide whether he would buy more glucose strips or pay his rent. The man, Stone said, chose to pay the rent.\n"This was a near miss," Stone said. "We need to make the system easier, not harder."\nAttorney and Volunteers in Medicine board member Cindy Lott said health care is a shared problem that tears at the fabric of communities.\n"Communities didn't get into this problem alone," Lott said, "and they cannot get out of it alone.'\nLott said there are more than 22,000 people without health insurance in Monroe and Owen counties, he said. More than 4,000 are children.\nRuff addressed the fact that resolutions passed by the Common Council are often criticized for not being local and therefore not being council members' duties.\n"I disagree with that view," Ruff said. "This is a local issue."\nRuff said that Bloomington has thousands of low-income residents with no access to health care, but the problem needs to be addressed at both the state and national levels. Ruff called the Wednesday meeting an "official formal sanction to communicate with state and federal legislatures and representatives." Ruff hopes the resolution will influence and set an example for the state and other communities.\nRuff also said he does not accept the argument that people will abuse a health-care system funded by taxpayers.\nCouncil member Stephen Volan said people do not have to wait for far-away decision-makers to act.\n"We can support this here, now, locally," Volan said.