The American Public on Health Care-The Missing Perspective - (Page 66)

Town Hall Snapshot: Detroit, Michigan On March 26th 2008, the Council held a town hall meeting at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, MI. More than 200 members of the greater Detroit community joined in this extremely lively discussion about the state of health care in the area and across the nation. The discussion took on a particularly local flavor with participants focusing on growing concerns over their own personal rising health care costs as a result of current economic challenges in the city. Janet Olszewski noted that “we can’t afford not to cover everyone. If we think we’re not paying for it now, we are. We’re paying for it in the most inefficient, expensive way possible. People who don’t have coverage, don’t get care early, they don’t go to the doctor… so the diabetes gets worse, the heart disease gets worse, they’re served in the emergency room.” The recent downturn in the automotive industry also caused participants to take a close look at the challenges of the current employer-based system. “As long as we have employer-based health insurance, everyone who has it is going to want everything that they can get,” noted David Cole, Chairman of the Center for Automotive Research. “They want the best technology, they want the best drugs, they want the lowest co-pay and as long as we do that we’re going to have these inequities about the other parts of the population who don’t have full coverage.” Facing a difficult economic outlook, community members like Laura McKinney took aim at the concept that reform would need to be based on trade-offs, instead saying “I’m a United States Citizen and I feel like we should have that. I feel like it’s a human right. It’s only right that a person is able to get help or health care when they need it and when they’re sick.” Residents are paying close attention to Presidential candidates’ positions on health care. Their top priorities for the candidates are controlling cost and providing insurance coverage for children. They also want more information from the candidates about the bottom line costs for them and for the country. Health Care Spotlight: Detroit, Michigan Detroit is the largest city in the state of Michigan, and the Detroit Metropolitan Statistical Area is the 11th largest in the country, with a population of nearly 4.5 million people according to 2007 U.S. Census Bureau estimates. The local economy traditionally draws its cues from the automotive industry and affiliated manufacturing jobs, and the city has felt the burden of recent movement out of the city core and into the surrounding suburbs. Overall, the state of Michigan’s uninsured rate is 10.4%, below the national figure of 15.3%. What Matters to the People of South Detroit? According to our survey research, greater Detroit area residents point to cost as their biggest health care concern and find information about the cost and benefits of their health plans to be complex and confusing. At the same time, more than seven out of ten rate the quality of their own health care as good or excellent. Affordability and access to care for the uninsured in the Detroit area were overwhelmingly rated as poor or only fair, with 25% of residents saying they have put off medical treatment in the last year because of their inability to pay. 66

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