Northeast Florida health industry figures denounce Obama plan
Industry officials talked about the proposal as it relates to a free market.
* By Jeremy Cox Florida Times-Union
* Story updated at 8:09 AM on Thursday, Jul. 23, 2009
A panel of Northeast Florida health care leaders and analysts assailed several elements of President Barack Obama's plan to reform their industry Wednesday as the president sought to allay such fears on national television.
The event in Mandarin was like many health care forums hosted by interest groups and political figures nationwide in recent months: fiery and partisan. The organizer was the Jacksonville Association of Health Underwriters, a group that is strongly opposed to the centerpiece of Obama's proposal, a government-run alternative to private insurance.
"It creates a dynamic where the government is both a player and a referee in the same game," said Mark LaBorde, the Southeast region's president of small and middle market plans for the insurance carrier Aetna.
LaBorde was one of seven members of an industry-heavy panel that fielded questions about reforming America's $2.5 trillion health care industry. While most panelists agreed with some broad parameters of Obama's plan, sharp disagreements emerged once they began discussing the proposals in detail.
The two-hour discussion came amid an intensifying national debate on health care reform. Congress is working on a bill that spends $1 trillion over 10 years and covers million of uninsured Americans but does little to put the brakes on rising costs. Republicans and several key Democrats have balked at Obama's call to have the bill approved before Congress' August recess.
Obama sought to address those concerns in a prime-time news conference Wednesday night. The president's critics would have found themselves in friendly company in the crowd of 150 people at the Jacksonville forum.
The remarks by the only panelist who was a clear supporter of Obama's policies were greeted at times by derisive laughter.
"As an economist, I do believe in the free market but not for health care," said Faye Armitage, a universal health care advocate and founder of the group Cure Paralysis Now. The current system rewards physicians for performing more tests and doing more procedures, but not necessarily for making patients better, she added.
Meanwhile, applause tended to follow Robin Lumb's turns to speak. The Duval County Republican Party's health care policy analyst said that health care's increasing costs could be traced to over-regulation. Strip away the rules and renewed competition would drive costs down, he said.
"It's slow-motion socialism," he said of the congressional plans, adding that he was speaking for himself and not necessarily his party.
Colby Jackson, a health insurance agent and Health Underwriter Association board member, said after the forum that the debate was more one-sided than planned. His organization tried to reach out to speakers on the other side of the debate, but scheduling conflicts prevented them from participating.
jeremy.cox@jacksonville.com,
(904) 359-4083
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