Health-care reform is shaping up to be a complicated battle with several options being tossed around in the Capitol Hill, while Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-8th District) remains undecided.
“How are we going to pay for this?” Emerson commented recently on the numerous options being proposed.
Emerson said she has not decided what plan she will support in the debate.
A health insurance exchange, an organized marketplace where many insurance companies compete against each other, was an idea Emerson was intrigued by but did not say whether she would support.
President Barack Obama previously has endorsed the idea.
Emerson also showed interest in insurance cooperatives but wasn’t sure whether the cost is viable. An insurance cooperative is small blocks of employers who form a co-ops to negotiate with local commercial health insurers.
Some groups in the state are trying to get Emerson to back a public option.
“We want to get them (Congress) to see the importance of a public option,” said Robin Acree the executive director of Grass Roots Organizing, non-profit advocacy group in Mexico, Mo.
According to a report issued by Health Care for America Now on the affordability of health care in Missouri, health care premiums rose 76 percent from 2000 to 2007. Median Income rose only 17 percent in the same time. GRO sent the report to Emerson’s office.
The 8th District has a 18-percent poverty rate according to Ashli Bolden, a civic engagement coordinator for Missouri Progressive Vote.
Added to the high level of poverty in the district, residents, most of whom live in rural areas, are disadvantaged by the lack of insurance options, according to Acree.
“There is not a big enough pool — there is not enough competition (in rural areas),” Acree said.
GRO is advocating a public option to increase competition for rural residents and lower cost.
Emerson agreed with Acree’s assertion that rural areas have a problem with competition and said the issue needs to addressed in any reform. She also noted the need for rural areas to have more availability to health care, suggesting the possibility a national organization where doctors commit five years practicing in rural areas.
Right now, Emerson doesn’t support a public option because what the option will look like hasn’t been determined.
“We have no idea what a public option will look like,” Emerson said.
However, there is one option Emerson stated she will not back, a single-payer system.
A single-payer system isn’t what GRO is looking to accomplish, since it would actually reduce options.
“We don’t have a problem with there being a choice,” Acree said reiterating the area doesn’t need less choice, but more.
Acree said GRO will continue to organize residents in the coming months to try and mobilize support for a public option.
