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Wyden stumps for national dialogue on health care By BILL KETTLER Ron Wyden hopes to succeed where Bill and Hillary Clinton failed. Oregon's Democrat in the U.S. Senate came to Medford this week talking about health-care reform with the enthusiasm of a man on a mission. Wyden told physicians of the Jackson County Medical Society Wednesday evening that it's time for the United States to join the rest of the industrialized world and provide some level of basic medical care for everyone. Wyden said he wants to create a national dialogue about "what (kind of care) we want people to get, how much it's going to cost, and who's going to pay for it." He delivered the same message Thursday during a visit to Medford's Community Health Center, a "safety-net clinic" that treats patients who have no health insurance. Wyden said the United States spends more than $1 trillion annually on health care, "but we've still got consistently 38 or 40 million people who fall between the cracks." He said the Clintons' national health-insurance plan failed because they created a 1,300-page proposal behind closed doors and handed it to Congress with instructions to pass it, rather than seeking ideas from physicians, patients, insurance companies, trial lawyers and everyone else who has a stake in health care reform. "The dialogue is everything," he said. "If Bill Clinton had sent 20 pages and spent his time going around the country getting people involved in conversation, we might have (national health care) already," he said. Physicians shared their more immediate concerns with Wyden. Several said that low Medicare reimbursements have forced many Southern Oregon doctors to limit the numbers of seniors they treat, and skyrocketing malpractice insurance rates are making it difficult for others to earn enough money to pay their bills. Some doctors have declined to serve on-call shifts, and others are choosing to retire early rather than struggle with intrusive federal regulations and shrinking incomes. Dr. Yvonne Fried said doctors are finding themselves in an "untenable position" of having to refuse care to some members of the region's growing senior community. "My sense is we're being pulverized," Fried said. Wyden said Oregon's experience with its state-run health care plan provides an important lesson for the rest of the nation - namely, that there are choices to be made in health-care spending. "There's not enough money to do everything," he said, noting that even America's "medical industrial complex" can't cure every ill. When treatments can't cure, the focus has to shift to preventing pain. "We have to say, 'Nobody's going to suffer; nobody's going to go in pain.' " Wyden said any national health-care plan must also require people to make an out-of-pocket payment when they see a doctor or visit a hospital and include "ability to pay" provisions for Medicare patients as well. "We need a very significant personal responsibility component," he said. "Every time you use a medical service in America, you ought to make a payment when you walk in the door. You ought to make a payment because medical care isn't free." Wyden said there's so much frustration with the existing system that people have become afraid to try to reform it because "the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know." But the system has to change, he said, to cope with the "tsunami" of baby boomers who will become eligible for Medicare during the next 10 years. Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.