Health Commission Has Bad Case of Acne

By Lynn Harsh

The "enlightened few" are at it again, this time in the form of the Washington Health Services Commission.

The Health Services Commission is in the middle of making sweeping changes to our health care system. They wanted input regarding these changes from the average citizen, but had no money to hold public forums or do polling. So, the Commission came up with a brilliant fundraising idea.

For $12,000, private companies and health care organizations could come to a forum sponsored by the Commission and ask two questions. Also included in that price was a dinner and breakfast with Commission members at which time the lucky donor could receive a follow-up report and polling data. Those who only had $5,000 dollars could ask one question--but no private breakfast, dinner or polling results.

When a representative of the Chiropractic Association became concerned and spoke up on behalf of us Joe and Jane Sixpack types, the Commission bagged their egalitarian idea.

The Commissioners say they are sorry, and I believe them. But in the wake left behind this incident, several questions beg to be asked. What were our lawmakers thinking when they empowered a Commission to create mandates drastically changing our lives and the way we spend our health care dollars without asking our opinion first? How can state government appropriate huge sums for fishtanks and new carpets but not put enough money in the budget for the public to have a forum to comment on the health care reform plan? Let's face it. The average person listening to the nightly news is waiting for Congress to duke it out and come up with a national plan. Most citizens don't even know that our state has already passed a health care reform law.

It is a symptom of our times. While sometimes unintentional, the "enlightened few" among us too frequently establish policy stemming from the assumption that they know what is best for the rest of us poor illiterates. We should remember this elitist governing attitude two years from now while we wait in line for expensive, rationed health care from a doctor we have never met. Aging baby boomers, should remember the policymakers' good intentions when they need mammograms or specialists to fix recalcitrant knees, but are declined because they are too young.

In good conscience, it must be stated that some of the health care reformers are well-meaning people with great compassion. But too often, empathy and guilt are precursors to public policy which ends up enslaving those whom it seeks to help.

I have a couple of ideas for the Commission. If they really need money for public forums, have a Roast. Once people discover how the health reform package will affect their health and their pocketbooks, they will line up to come.

Or, perhaps if the Commission could get the governor to spring for the $65 janitor's fee, the forums could be held in free public buildings. Presentations could be made on an overhead projector and the audience could take notes, thus saving copying costs.

Or, the Commission could listen to the public at other health care forums already taking place. Without even taking a poll, you can read the lips of the business people at meetings such as the governor's recent small business health care forum. Tens of thousands of them will not survive the proposed health care plan.

In response to their inappropriate fundraising tactics, the Health Services Commission chairwoman said she did not want to blemish the new Commission. Unfortunately, it appears to us they already have a bad case of acne.

Sincerely,

Lynn Harsh Executive Director

Lynn Harsh is the Executive Director of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a non-profit research organization.

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org