Story originally printed in the Winona Daily News or online at www.winonadailynews.com

Published - Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Challenges facing health care discussed at forum

By Mark Sommerhauser | Winona Daily News

Like many small-business owners, Cynthia Daube is facing a crisis of health care coverage.

Daube owns a small chain of bakeries in Rochester, Minn. She’s got more than 40 employees, yet only 10 of them can afford health insurance under her business’ current plan.

Daube says she’d like to expand coverage and reduce employee premiums. But the cost of her current plan is already as much as her business can handle, she said.

“If I wished to insure all my employees … I couldn’t do it,” Daube said.

Daube’s predicament is increasingly common amid America’s growing health care crisis, leaders gathered at a health-care summit said Monday afternoon.

Rep. Tim Walz, D-Mankato, organized the forum, which was attended by area hospital CEOs, other care providers and public administrators.

The panel agreed that southern Minnesotans enjoy a high standard of care relative to the rest of the country.

It also agreed on the need to expand care and reduce costs.

“We’ve got a 40-plus-year-old system that is not designed for what we’re faced with right now,” said Winona Health President Rachelle Schultz.

The method of achieving reform was less certain.

Some present advocated a single-payer system that would eliminate private health insurance. Others backed a market-based approach that would expand coverage through the existing system.

Although Daube said she favors some form of universal coverage, she’s not sure that single-payer coverage would provide “enough incentives to keep costs down.”

Walz encouraged a “vigorous debate” on the merits of single-payer coverage vs. market-based reforms.

“If we want to find an easy scapegoat without looking at the nuances of what’s happening here, we’re not going to get real reform,” Walz said.

Contact Mark Sommerhauser at (507) 453-3514 or msommerhauser@winonadailynews.com.