Retired medical doctor asks Dunn County for referendum on single-payer healthcare
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
MENOMONIE — A retired medical doctor has asked the Dunn County Board’s Executive Committee for a referendum question on single-payer healthcare.
Dr. Lorene Vedder of Menomonie told the executive committee at the June 8 meeting that she was a retired medical doctor who had worked in internal medicine and had a concern about how healthcare is delivered in the county, the state and the country.
Americans are facing a decreasing life expectancy, she said.
In Canada, the life expectancy is 4.5 years longer than in the United States. In 1970, Americans and Canadians had the same life expectancy, Dr. Vedder said.
“Why are we seeing this difference?” she asked.
“People in our country are afraid to access healthcare. This is because of the excess cost of medical care,” Dr. Vedder said.
In the United States, 30 million people are without health insurance, and 44 percent of the American people do not have the funds for healthcare even if they have health insurance, she said.
Co-pays and deductibles were implemented in the 1970s to prevent people from accessing healthcare to hold down costs. The result co-pays and deductibles is that people in the United States access healthcare much less than any other developed country in the world, Dr. Vedder said.
By avoiding healthcare, people are coming to the emergency room when it is too late to treat them, when the disease is too advanced, she said.
People in the United States are being bankrupted by their medical bills, Dr. Vedder said.
“Nowhere else in the developed world are people bankrupted by their health,” she said.
Employers are expected to provide health insurance, and the costs are now shifting to employees because employers cannot afford the health insurance, Dr. Vedder said.
Salaries are held down because employers are trying to provide health insurance, she noted.
Health insurance also must surely be an increasingly larger part of the budget for Dunn County, Dr. Vedder said.
Single-payer healthcare would decrease expenses and eliminate middlemen who are denying care and delaying care for patients — “and they have to make a profit for their shareholders,” she said.
Agenda
Dr. Vedder said she had written a proposed referendum question for Dunn County regarding single-payer healthcare and that she was asking for the referendum question to be on the agenda for the executive committee in July.
The more appropriate committee would be the legislative agenda committee rather than the executive committee, said Kelly McCullough, chair of the Dunn County Board and chair of the executive committee.
The legislative agenda committee will meet prior to the next executive committee meeting on the first Wednesday in July, said Gary Stene, vice chair of the Dunn County Board and chair of the legislative agenda committee.
Stene said the legislative agenda committee would be more than happy to put single-payer healthcare on the agenda.
Medical emergency
Craig Manning of Menomonie also spoke to the executive committee and said he was advocating for a referendum question on single-payer healthcare.
Manning said he had experienced a major medical emergency in another country and had experienced a major medical emergency in the United States.
The experiences and the differences in cost, quality of care, billing and administration are appalling, he said.
“I am advocating to move (Dr. Vedder’s) motion forward,” Manning said.
The issue is not only the cost to the individual but also the cost to small business owners, he said.
As a small business owner himself, Manning said, “It pains me when revenue cannot provide insurance for our employees.”
Dunn County is also feeling the difficulty of providing health insurance for employees, or will be, he said, adding that he is in support of free trade and capitalism, but that demand for healthcare is infinite and the costs are increasing.
Government must advocate that all citizens have a right to healthcare, Manning said.
