Hoosier group turns out to support bill for universal health care

Last week, Karen Green Stone and 60 other demonstrators from the group Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan lined up outside the Anthem-Wellpoint Health Insurance headquarters in Indianapolis to support a universal health care bill making its way through the U.S. House.\nHoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan is a non-profit group that advocates a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would extend the federal health insurance system, Medicare, to all U.S. citizens. The bill, HR676, was introduced by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and has 70 co-sponsors, including 7th District Congresswoman Julia Carson, D-Ind.\nGreen Stone’s husband, Rob Stone, is the group’s director. He explained that HR676 is the universal health care bill that currently has the most support in the House. One of the functions of Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan is to lobby legislators to sign the bill. Stone said he has approached local Rep. Baron Hill, and that the congressman is considering it.\nA spokesperson for Hill said health care is a high priority for him, but that he is trying to balance the bill’s benefits with its cost.\nTo fund the measure, legislators have proposed a new payroll tax, which would affect the top tier of income earners by introducing new sin taxes, closing corporate tax loopholes and repealing President Bush’s tax cuts.\nJim Kappel, staff vice president for Corporate Media Relations at Wellpoint, Inc., said the company is committed to providing affordable health care to all Americans. He spoke of an action plan that Anthem-Wellpoint has created to extend coverage to 30 million Americans over the next three years and to provide universal care for children.\n“We want to reach out to individuals who can’t afford it,” he said.\n “Overall, there have been a number of different proposals,” Kappel said. “We welcome different ideas or opinions, but we believe that Americans want choice in the marketplace.”\nStone spoke at the rally, as did another woman who found her daughter dead in her bed because her daughter could not afford to go to the emergency room or pay for her prescriptions. The woman was left with her daughter’s two-year-old child. “(Her story) was absolutely heartbreaking,” Green Stone said.\nKaren Green Stone, Rob Stone and the head of the organization’s lobbying committee, Julia Vaughn, all own stock in Anthem-Wellpoint. Therefore, they were allowed to attend the annual shareholders’ meeting, although they arrived late and were put into the overflow room. Still, they were able to ask questions, and after the meeting, they met with the retiring CEO, Larry Glasscock. \nHoosiers for Commonsense Health Care has also been working to enact legislation that would create a single-payer state health care system. Stone said many similar bills have been proposed around the country. In California, one such measure made it through the House and Senate but was vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Indiana bill did not progress further than an introduction before the session ended, but the General Assembly will reconvene in January, at which time the bill will be reintroduced.\nHoosiers for Commonsense Health Care holds a general meeting at Boxcar Books, 310 S. Washington St., each month. All are invited to attend. The next meeting is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m. on June 13. For more information, visit www.hchp.info.\nSince last semester, a student branch of the group has also been working for the cause. \n“I realized that there were no student groups about the single-payer health plan. It is very important for students to know about,” said Russell McIntire, an IU graduate student and the founder of the student group.\nHe explained that, even though most students are on their parents’ health insurance, they will eventually be dropped and will have to begin making payments on their own.\nThe group has between 12 and 15 members. Next semester,McIntire hopes to create a film series centering around public health care and to raise more awareness about the issue among students. \nFor more information on this organization, e-mail rkmcinti@indiana.edu.