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WILKES-BARRE — Before a state House hearing on health care began Wednesday, Mike and Mary Jane Shinko wondered what they might learn.
“We want affordable health care for everyone, not just for the very rich or very poor,” said Mary Jane, of Miners Mills. “The middle class can’t afford health care.”
Mike is semi-retired, working a part-time job for extra money, and he is old enough to qualify for Medicare. Mary Jane will soon be 62, which puts her three years from the Medicare start age of 65.
“Health care should not be a political concern,” Mary Jane said.
State Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski agreed. “The solution doesn’t have anything to do with politics,” he said. “This is about human decency.”
Pashinski, D-Wilkes-Barre, hosted a House Democratic Policy Committee hearing to discuss affordable care for Pennsylvanians.
The hearing — part of House Democrats’ Plan4PA — was held at the Sheehy-Farmer Campus Center at King’s College.
Pashinski requested the meeting to gain insight from state officials and policy experts on the current costs of health care and how to make it more affordable. Members of the Policy Committee from all over the state, including Chairman Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster, attended.
”Between the year 2000 and 2009, health care costs rose on average 6.9 percent yearly,” Pashinski said. “Following the passage of the Affordable Care Act, costs still rose an average of 4.2 percent yearly.”
Pashinski said the ACA helped the continually rising cost of health care, but it didn’t help enough.
“We continue to be the only industrialized nation that doesn’t offer some form of universal health care, while at the same time paying nearly double in health care costs compared to those nations and we still have nearly one-third of Americans with zero or inadequate health insurance.” Pashinski said.
Pashinski said to truly solve the problem, Congress needs to put together a task force of experts from all of the health care industries — doctors, nurses, insurance agents, pharmacists, hospital executives and patients — and conduct an audit to see what is working and what isn’t.
“If we don’t do something to control the cost of health care, we’ll never get this situation under control and Americans will continue to go without affordable, accessible coverage,” Pashinski said.
Cor Catena, CEO of Commonwealth Health and Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, was the first to address the committee.
“From the hospital’s point of view, I can tell you the bills patients receive can often be misleading,” Catena said. “Hospitals are paid according to fixed or negotiated rates that are typically a fraction of the rates charged.”
Catena offered several reasons why hospital costs are on the rise. He said ERs provide care whether the patient is insured or not. He said over five years, Commonwealth Health affiliates provided $181 million in charity and uncompensated care.
Others offering testimony: Leesa Allen, executive deputy secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Human Services; Alison Beam, chief of staff, Pennsylvania Department of Insurance; Ashley Weale, RN, emergency room nurse, Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals; and Marc Stier, director, Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center.
Beam said the Insurance Department and Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration are working to “move the needle” on health care costs.
She said the goal is to stabilize the insurance market by strategically and thoughtfully anticipating and reacting to challenges presented by federal regulatory dynamics.
“But more than just being reactive, the department is proactively identifying solutions to implement in Pennsylvania that can achieve meaningful affordability for consumers,” Beam said.
