Healthcare for All Ohioans/SPAN Ohio

Fall 2024 Newsletter

Director's Report

Regional Reports

Committee Reports

Recommended Reading

• Health care comes up again as a defining issue for Ohio voters in November election
• Ohio State's new $2 billion medical tower will pilfer small businesses
• Mirror, Mirror 2024: A Portrait of the Failing U.S. Health System
• Healthcare for All Isn’t on the Ballot This November, But It Should Be
• Sanders Rips Pharma Giant for Charging $900+ for Drug That Could Be Sold for $100
• Why I Left The Network
  

Of Interest

• Prepare Now for 2025 -- Read, Vote, Join, by Linda Brown

Director's Report

Since I was installed as HCFAO/SPAN State Director in April 2024, necessary actions have since been accomplished in the intervening months.  The bank accounts have been transferred. Treasurer Bob Kemp and I will be the signatories. I am just a backup. Bob has the checks. We are ready now, and need, our Fund Raising and Business Committees to meet.

A meeting has been scheduled with legislators who will introduce the Healthcare for All Ohioans Act in the next session.  We will talk about the bill and try to set a date for introduction.

I am scheduling a meeting with the executive committee to discuss SPAN’S five-year plan. The previous one is expiring or has expired.

For our Labor Committee, Tune in to: Labor Campaign for Single Payer, chaired by Rose Roach.

I am expecting a busy 2025. Our committees need to be organized, primed, and prepared.

Regional Reports

Region 4 (Cincinnati, Southwest Ohio)
Coordinator: Deliah (Dee) Chavez (513-413-1178) dee49@fuse.net

Committee Reports

The Health Equity Committee is working on planning our next and final equity workshop of the year. Topic and speaker with be announced, so stay tuned! We are excited that you can now reach us at healthequity@healthcareforallohioans.org. With this email, we are establishing monthly Equity Outreach emails to persons who have registered for our events in the past. In total, we have reached nearly 300 unique persons at our events! These are brief emails that will contain upcoming HFAO events, relevant DEI news, and connect current events to HFAO’s work through a DEI lens. With these emails we hope to engage those who have briefly connected with us.

We also continue to update the Social Justice Contact Sheet for our Regional Coordinators, which can be found in the toolbox here. As a reminder, continue to share your “why” stories, connect at cross-cultural events, and add your regional events to the calendar.

All the best,
Amber Prater, MPH, CHES®

Lobby Committee Report

All Ohio legislators and Healthcare for All Ohioans/SPAN activists will be encouraged to attend.

The next meeting of the Lobby Committee is Wednesday, October 23 at 7 PM.   If you wish to attend, and are not already on the Lobby Committee, please contact me

Phone: 513-413-1178     dee49@fuse.net

Membership Committee Report

Recommended Reading

Health care comes up again as a defining issue for Ohio voters in November election

A new poll of Ohio voters finds health care as one of the issues determining who they will support in the November general election.

More than 8 in 10 Ohio voters polled in a survey conducted as part of the American Cancer Society (ACS) Cancer Action Network’s “Cancer Votes” campaign said where a candidate stands on “access to affordable, comprehensive health coverage” stands out to them, with 51% saying the position is very important as they head to the ballots, according to the survey’s key findings.

“Majorities of Republicans (78%), Independents (89%) and Democrats (97%) say a candidate’s position on access to affordable, comprehensive health care is an important factor in their vote decision,” the study stated.

Many of the 600 registered voters polled in the study expressed disappointment in the current health care system, and even the state itself. Researchers found that 60% of Ohio voters polled say the state “has gotten off on the wrong track,” and 59% of voters said the health care system is not “meeting the needs of most Ohio residents.”

“Ohio voters clearly understand the importance of affordable health coverage and want their lawmakers to improve access to care and reduce debt,” ACS Cancer Action Network government relations director Leo Almedia said in a statement announcing the study. “Every Ohioan should learn more about these critical health care issues and find out where their candidates stand.”

For full article, go to:

https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2024/09/03/health-care-comes-up-again-as-a-defining-issue-for-ohio-voters-in-november-election/

Ohio State's new $2 billion medical tower will pilfer small businesses

The vast majority of these increased costs will be borne by Ohio’s business community, which offer the majority of health benefits for Ohioans.

By, Julie Wilkes, Guest columnist, August 14, 2024

Small businesses around the nation have faced extreme financial hardships. For those who call Ohio home, the situation could be getting much worse.

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center is constructing a brand-new hospital tower—the single largest capital project in OSU’s storied history.

This 26-story tower is estimated to cost nearly $2 billion — more than Dubai's Burj Khalifa — the tallest building in the world. The tower has enough steel to construct two Eiffel Towers and twice as much concrete as Ohio Stadium.

Although Ohio State has announced fractional fundraising success, that tower has to be paid by someone.

A May report from the Buckeye Institute highlights how the debt accumulated as a result of the Wexner expansion — and its interest— will be pilfered from the pockets of every single Ohioan.

With the looming cost of the new tower, Wexner will need to increase hospital prices, leading to bigger hospital bills for employers and patients.

Ohio businesses are footing the bill

The vast majority of these increased costs will be borne by Ohio’s business community. In order for small businesses to afford to pay their employees’ health bills, customers, staff and their families will pay the price.

This is particularly disconcerting when you consider that Ohioans already spend more on health care than residents in other states and experience poorer outcomes. Ohio is ranked 44th out of all 50 states for 'health value,' meaning we pay more for worse care. Wexner in particular is also declining; according to a U.S. News and Health report, the famed James Cancer Center is no longer considered the best cancer center in Ohio. . . .

For full article, go to:

https://www.dispatch.com/story/opinion/columns/guest/2024/08/14/wexner-center-ohio-businesses-increased-health-cost-buckeye-institiute/74781660007/

Mirror, Mirror 2024: A Portrait of the Failing U.S. Health System

Comparing Performance in 10 Nations

Abstract

• Goal: Compare health system performance in 10 countries, including the United States, to glean insights for U.S. improvement.

• Methods: Analysis of 70 health system performance measures in five areas: access to care, care process, administrative efficiency, equity, and health outcomes.

• Key Findings: The top three countries are Australia, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, although differences in overall performance between most countries are relatively small. The only clear outlier is the U.S., where health system performance is dramatically lower.

• Conclusion: The U.S. continues to be in a class by itself in the underperformance of its health care sector. While the other nine countries differ in the details of their systems and in their performance on domains, unlike the U.S., they all have found a way to meet their residents’ most basic health care needs, including universal coverage.

For full report, go to:

https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/fund-reports/2024/sep/mirror-mirror-2024

EXHIBIT 2 — Overall Performance Ranking

The United States lags its international peers considerably on health system performance.

Responding to this report, Representative Pramila Jayapal stated:

Medical debt and exorbitant costs regularly keep people from seeking necessary care, with a growing population of "underinsured" Americans—those who have health insurance but still aren't getting the care they desperately need.

This for-profit system leads to higher rates of death and disease and lower life expectancies—all while Americans spend more and more trying to get the care they need. In the richest nation on the planet, this simply should not and cannot be the case.

We need a system with comprehensive care for all, regardless of employment status, with no copays, deductibles, or private insurance premiums. A system where the [government] provides your insurance and doesn't allow private companies to override what your own doctor says you need. . . .

I'm so proud to be the lead sponsor of the Medicare for All Act, and I won't stop fighting until everyone can get quality healthcare without having to worry about what it might cost. Thank you so much to the 100+ members who have cosponsored our bill, H.R. 3421!  It's time for a healthcare system that actually works. Let's get Medicare for All done.

Healthcare for All Isn’t on the Ballot This November, But It Should Be

. . .

Vice President Kamala Harris , who previously co-sponsored Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) single payer bill in 2019, will avoid promoting the plan this year. Nor has Harris adopted the more modest idea she endorsed in 2019: a publicly funded health plan that people could opt into, known as the  “public option.”

Instead, Harris has chosen to campaign on tinkering around the edges of our complicated patchwork system by lowering a handful of prescription drug prices for Medicare recipients.

While it is an incredible achievement on the part of the Biden-Harris administration to regulate drug prices for the first time in decades, the changes are modest. They’re limited to only 10 drugs this year (with more drugs to be regulated each year) and only apply to people already enrolled in Medicare. . . .

Harris still has time to back healthcare for all, but it will take a massive public push from below. In spite of the enormous amount of pro-corporate propaganda against universal healthcare, a majority of Americans have historically supported single-payer healthcare. A May 2024 Data for Progress poll found that two-thirds of Americans support expanding Medicare to all. . .

For full article, go to

https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/healthcare-for-all-isnt-on-the-ballot-this-november-but-it-should-be/

Sanders Rips Pharma Giant for Charging $900+ for Drug That Could Be Sold for $100

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders called out the pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk on Tuesday for charging American patients more than $900 a month for the increasingly popular diabetes drug Ozempic, even though generic manufacturers are willing to sell the medication for significantly less.

During a panel discussion with experts, Sanders (I-Vt.) said he and his staff have been in contact with the top executives of major drug makers who say they could sell a generic version of Ozempic for less than $100 a month—and still turn a profit. A recent study found that the drug can be manufactured for less than $5 a month.

[Graphic]

"Novo Nordisk, which has made nearly $50 billion in sales off of Ozempic and Wegovy, charges Americans almost $1,000 a month—the highest prices in the world," Sanders, the chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, said Tuesday. "Why? Excessive corporate greed."

Ozempic and Wegovy are part of a class of treatments known as GLP-1s. Wegovy, a weight-loss drug that Novo Nordisk sells for $1,349 a month in the U.S., contains the same active ingredient as Ozempic, which is approved only for people with Type 2 diabetes.

The drugs' growing popularity in the U.S. has drawn greater scrutiny to Novo Nordisk's pricing. Sanders' office noted Tuesday that the company's price tag for Wegovy is $186 in Denmark, $140 in Germany, and $92 in the United Kingdom. . . .

For Full article, go to:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/sanders-ozempic-price

Why I Left The Network

They studied, honed their skills and opened practices, joining health insurance networks that put them within reach of people who couldn’t afford to pay for sessions out of pocket.

So did more than 500 other psychologists, psychiatrists and therapists who shared their experiences with ProPublica.

But one after another, they confronted a system set up to squeeze them out.

Although federal law requires insurers to provide the same access to mental and physical health care, these companies have been caught, time and again, shortchanging customers with mental illness — restricting coverage and delaying or denying treatment.

These patients — whose disorders can be chronic and costly — are bad for business, industry insiders told ProPublica.

“The way to look at mental health care from an insurance perspective is: I don’t want to attract those people. I am never going to make money on them,” said Ron Howrigon, a consultant who used to manage contracts with providers for major insurers. “One way to get rid of those people or not get them is to not have a great network.”

There are nowhere near enough available therapists in insurance networks to serve all of the people seeking care. And although almost all Americans are insured, about half of people with mental illness are unable to access treatment.

The consequences can be devastating.

To understand the forces that drive even the most well-intentioned therapists from insurance networks, ProPublica plunged into a problem most often explored in statistics and one-off perspectives. Reporters spoke to hundreds of providers in nearly all 50 states, from rural communities to big cities.

. . . .

For full article, go to:

https://projects.propublica.org/why-i-left-the-network/

Of Interest

Prepare Now for 2025 -- Read, Vote, Join

by Linda Brown

Healthcare will undoubtedly be a hot topic in 2025. Enhanced subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) expire at the end of 2025, unless congress extends them. ACA Marketplace enrollees could experience steep increases in premium payments in 2026. The size of the “subsidy cliff” would vary “depending on factors like where you live, how many people are in your family, and your age” ⁽¹⁾. Potential increases may be greatest for people and families with incomes over 400% of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL); and for individuals nearing retirement age. There is currently no phase-out of subsidies for those who make just over the Federal Poverty Level (FPL).

The enhanced subsidies were passed for two years in 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA); and extended for three additional years through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed in 2022. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that “a permanent extension of the subsidies would cost $335 billion over the next ten years⁽²⁾.” With costs looming as significant challenges for both individuals and American society, healthcare will once again be debated heartily.

In addition, by mid-July (July 14-23, 2025), the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) will convene in New York (See: https://hlpf.un.org/2025). There, Strategic Development Goal (SDG) 3 heads the list of goals to be reviewed at that time. The United Nation’s Agenda for 2030 established 17 SDGs (See: https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda).

While all goals are considered interlinked, Goal 3--Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages—addresses health most directly. Target 3.8—Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all—is one of the few targets which omits “By 2030” as a preamble deadline.

Assuming the United States take part in the assessment, representatives should be prepared to discuss Indicator 3.8.1—Coverage of essential health services; and Indicator 3.8.2—Proportion of population with large household expenditures on health as a share of total household expenditure or income; as well as stating the nation’s progress or position achieving universal healthcare, or perhaps even forecasting how and when the country might actually accomplish universal healthcare. (3)

In such an important election year, given the specter of explosive premiums, global reporting deadlines, and other significant health trends, healthcare should already be receiving more thorough attention in public discourse. Ask local, state, and federal candidates now about their positions on healthcare, and place your informed vote this fall anticipating the 2025 health debates. And join Healthcare for All Ohioans now, or renew your membership, so you will be better prepared to take part in vigorous 2025 health reform discussions.

Footnotes:

1. What is the ACA Subsidy Cliff?; Carly Plemons; Well, Individual and Family; eHealth; September 06, 2024. At https://www.ehealthinsurance.com/resources/individual-and-family/what-is-the-subsidy-cliff

2. Inflation Reduction Act Health Insurance Subsidies: What is Their Impact and What Would Happen if They Expire?; Jared Ortaliza, Anna Cord, Matt McGough, Justin Lo, and Cynthia Cox; KFF; July 26, 2024. AT https://www.kff.org/affordable-care-act/issue-brief/inflation-reduction-act-health-insurance-subsidies-what-is-their-impact-and-what-would-happen-if-they-expire/)

3. These two indicators are measuring progress towards Universal Healthcare. The theme of the 2025 HLPF is “Advancing sustainable, inclusive, science- and evidence-based solutions for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals for leaving no one behind” – therefore, factual evidence should be presented. Preparations and publicity for this event will likewise amplify America’s healthcare debate and discussion.