Obamacare. Healthcare reform. Single-payer system. Public option. What do you support?

I decided to head out into the streets of Portland to find out where average Americans stood on the issue. I was really hoping to find some strong opinions especially against reform. Not because I don’t support healthcare reform but because I wanted to try to dig past the one liners from TV and see how they really felt. But alas, none were to be found.

Average Americans Discuss Healthcare Reform

A big “Thank You!” to my friend Aaron Jensen for helping me with this project and to the friendly people who agreed to participate.

Image by Shermee.

I was pleasantly surprised when I picked up Powell’s Books Calendar of Events earlier this month to see that Governor Howard Dean would be coming to speak about his new book. Gov. Dean’s book is titled, Howard Dean’s Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform: How We Can Achieve Affordable Medical Care for Every American and Make Our Jobs Safer. That’s a monster of a title but don’t worry it’s a quick read at only 160 pages.

As you may or may not know, Gov. Dean served as the Governor of Vermont and after running for president in 2004, he became the Democratic National Committee Chairman. Howard Dean led the 50-State Strategy which helped Democrats pick-up seats in the House and Senate, even in traditionally conservative states. Now, the Democrats lead the country as the majority party.

The book describes Gov. Dean’s experience as a physician and his critiques of the healthcare industry, specifically the for-profit health insurance industry. He is very precise in his critiques and draws great comparisons to other countries and even demonstrates the efficiency of Medicare to show how much money can be saved. His argument is that we should at least offer every American the chance to utilize the same quality care and service that people over 65 years of age enjoy when they use Medicare.

Howard Dean’s Speech

Dean was going to begin by signing books but since some people had taken their lunch break to attend he switched gears and launched into a clear and passionate speech about the problems we face and how we can fix them. Just moments into his speech, a heckler starts harassing him about single-payer healthcare. The heckler was roundly shushed by the audience and Gov. Dean asked him to please respect other people’s time and when it comes to Q&A he will be called on to speak. However, the guy wanted to be a pain and he was eventually asked to leave by Powell’s employees. Another heckler attempted the same thing shortly after and was again shushed by the crowd and asked to leave by employees. After that it went without a problem and was very informative.

Points to take away:

• We offer efficient, government run healthcare already for veterans and the eldery. We should expand this to everyone.
• Medicare only costs 4% of every dollar to administer. The best private insurance can do is 20%. Huge savings potential.
• Primary care physicians in the British healthcare system typically make more money than primary care physicians in America.
• Prevent health problems instead of overpaying for expensive treatment in the case of preventable diseases.
• President Obama’s plan will offer a huge benefit to small business by relieving them of the expense of providing health care. With a public option.
• American businesses will become more competitive with foreign companies who enjoy lower employment costs due to their own governments’ universal healthcare plans. (Example, Toyota from Japan is gobbling up market share due to low costs. Please note: This is my example and not one Gov. Dean pointed out.)