U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-8th District) spoke Tuesday at the Centre in Rolla with local officials and residents concerning health care concerns, calling for a streamlining of the health care industry.

“By 2017 we will be spending $4.3 trillion on health care costs,” Emerson told the crowd.
This rising medical cost, which causes a large number of bankruptcies, caused Emerson to say the health care model is “unsustainable.”

Emerson’s vision for the future of health care would see a single system for everyone, with private companies competing.

“I don’t like all of these programs, I think it is too confusing,” Emerson said.

Instead, Emerson laid out a plan that would call for every American to be a part of this single system, with everyone being required to have insurance.

Change would have to come with concessions from the insurance industry, including no longer denying patients coverage for pre-existing conditions.

“Insurance companies would be willing to give up a lot to get all of those people,” Emerson said of the 47 million Americans who do not have insurance.

Emerson cited a recent meeting between President Barack Obama, where some of the major health care providers offered to cut health care costs by $2 trillion over 10 years, in return for limiting public health care.

However, she said after the meeting it would be unlikely programs such as Medicaid and Medicare would be eliminated any time soon or a single system would be financially feasible, given the current economic slump.

Currently, there are several proposals in Congress to change the system.

Sen. Max Baucus’ (D-Mont.) proposal was one Emerson highlighted, saying that it had the best chance for bi-partisan appeal, since it was grounded in a private system, with a public program option.

“I will tell you up-front there will not be a single-payer system,” Emerson told the group.

Participants in the meeting also expressed their own concerns and ideas for the future of health care, with the idea of public funding for health care drawing negative opinions from the majority of participants.

“I do not think government involvement in health care is constitutional,” Dr. Pamela Grow said, adding that the country has created a safety net that keeps people dependent on the government.

However, public health care was not completely rejected by everyone.

Adam Potthast, an associate professor at Missouri S&T, stated his support for the public option, citing what he felt is the prohibitive cost of insurance for people wanting to start their own companies.

“I support the public option because I think it is the best way to solve some of these problems,” Potthast said.

It wasn’t just issues of public funding the group discussed.

“From a rural America perspective, we are having trouble recruiting people here,” Dennis Pryor, the director of the Salem Memorial District Hospital, said.

Part of that has to do with the fact there aren’t enough doctors graduating and heading into primary care practice, according to Pryor.

Pryor also extolled the importance of preventative care and how it could be cost saving for hospitals. If people would see physicians before they have chronic conditions, it would allow the medical center to need less staff, he said.