Dr. Wayne Myers of Waldoboro watched as White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel pointed his finger toward the shirt buttons of Rep. Joe Wilson (R.-S. Carolina) after Wilson’s outburst during President Barack Obama’s Sept. 9 speech on health care reform.
“It was clearly not a cordial conversation,” Myers said from his farmhouse in Waldoboro, which he shares with his wife, JoAnne.
Dr. Myers witnessed the incident first-hand from a gallery seat behind Jill Biden, the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, as the President’s supporters applauded and Wilson’s colleagues turned to look after the South Carolina lawmaker yelled out “You Lie,” interrupting the president’s speech to a joint session of Congress.
“It was really quite exciting. He was awfully good,” Myers said of the President. “He never misses a well-timed pause.”
The debate over health care reform has divided politicians over health insurance cost and the competition to make health care accessible to all citizens, while the country has been at pause as to what will happen with the proposed health care bill debated in Congress.
“A lot of people in more rural parts of the US stand to gain the most by expanded access to health care and reform,” Myers said.
The retired doctor, who had said he hoped for a public option in the bill, has experience on health care issues affecting rural communities. He was a practicing doctor for 20 years in Alaska and helped to establish a medical school.
He is a trustee of the Maine Health Access Foundation Committee, past president of the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) and was director of Rural Health Policy in Washington, DC.
Last year, Myers spoke as a representative of NRHA to the House Agricultural Committee on the importance of health care in rural America, and the impact of federal programs associated with the Department of Agriculture.
Myers also attended a listening session at the White House in March that was focused on the implications of rural healthcare reform in America. People representing the farming, commercial fishing and ranching industries in attendance at the listening session held conflicting views on health care, he said.
One rancher from Colorado wanted health care reform, because he wasn’t able to provide coverage for his employees. Another rancher from Montana said the movement toward sharing responsibility for health care bothered him and he didn’t think the public option was a good idea.
Myers said a public health insurance option would be good, because people wouldn’t have to rely on employment with any one company just for the health insurance coverage. Freedom of choice would provide a chance for people to be entrepreneurs.
For the most part Myers speaks with his neighbors about health care, he said. He is often at home raising sheep with his wife, JoAnn, and weaves long bundles of wool on Beau Chemin Farm in Waldoboro.
They raise endangered heritage livestock such as Soay and Shetland sheep, cattle, ducks, a donkey, an ox and hens. They sell wool and heirloom plants, raspberries, flowers and vegetables and also offer farm tours and demonstrations.
“A lot of people in Maine need lower cost health insurance,” he said, seated at home, adding that government-funded programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) provide subsidized health care coverage for people who need it.
People living in rural areas disproportionately rely on the government-funded programs, he said. Myers encourages government support for rural health facilities, which are often constrained by budgetary difficulties.
People who earn less money shouldn’t have to pay more than 10 percent of their incomes for health insurance, he said. Under a new plan requiring everyone to get coverage, he thinks the proposed subsidies are not high enough to allow lower income folks to be able to afford the health insurance plans.
Driving up cost, and limiting access is due to the amount of time and money spent on transactions between insurance companies and medical services. According to the doctor, 30-40 percent goes toward managing dollars. He feels this money could be better invested.
“We spend fantastic amounts of money on transaction costs,” Myers said.
The doctor offered an example: For every $100 of costs associated with a hospital’s expenses, $5 goes toward a hospital transaction fee, private health insurance transaction fees are $15 and up on every $100 of cost. Compared with private health insurance, transaction fees for the government’s subsidized insurance is far less, he said.
