The Committee on Health and Human Services held a public hearing to explore the crisis of medical debt and the need for universal, single-payer healthcare. Three expert presenters provided extensive data and personal narratives, followed by testimony from numerous residents and healthcare professionals. Council members expressed strong support and pledged to pursue further action, including exploring a county referendum and researching local medical debt impacts.
I'll go with her. How about that? This meeting of the Committee on Health and Human Services, this public hearing is now in order. I'd like to thank everyone who has signed on to join us this evening. We have a number of people who have already signed on to speak. And we have some we have three people who were presenting initially to kind of lay out before all of us what their considerations are, what they're paying attention to, and what they would like all of us to be attentive to as well. So just by way of a couple of uh opening remarks, um so this evening we gather to consider in real time the the challenges that we face in uh everywhere in this country in making health care accessible and affordable to all. And that is something that is uh truly problematic in our society uh unless you're not paying attention or unless you haven't been affected. And there are some people who have been insulated from you know the worst of it, that is for sure. Um it was none other than I'm gonna put a name out here that some of you might recall, it was none other than Walter Cronkite, the most trusted man in America, who many years ago said that American a number of years ago, he said this 40 years ago, that America's health care system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system. Um I also see this moment as an opportunity to recall someone who I have always had great regard and great respect for, and that is uh Paul Farmer, a physician, and uh first and foremost a teacher who founded the organization called Partners in Health. Uh Farmer reminded us that medicine should be viewed as social justice work in a world that is so sick and so riven by inequities. And he saw it, and he's and as he saw it, the delivery of high quality care is both medical and moral as well. So, as we gather here this evening, um, I mean, clearly as a governmental entity uh at the county level. There are obviously uh hurdles that we would face in terms of um legal authority and legislative output uh based upon what we talk about here this evening. So even though we might not have the legal authority uh to effectively act, we do feel that we have a moral obligation to create a platform to create a stage so that we can elevate the attention that this particular all-encompassing issue uh deserves and requires. So this evening we are going to hear from any number of people. We uh your fellow citizens are here to share their often anguished experiences with our health care system, and the hope is that we will heighten awareness and that we will mobilize a good deal more activity uh around this and the the issues that surround it as well. And um, by way of beginning this evening, we have our three presenters. We have uh Ed Gristar, who is the co-founder of the Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Single Payer Health Care, also a former union representative, um, Pennsylvania Staff Nurses and Allied Associates, and the past president of butt of the Butler County Labor Council. We have Dr. Judy Albert, physicians for in for National Health Care of Western Pennsylvania, and the Western PA Coalition for Single Payer Health Care, and Dr. Claire Cohen as well, uh a child psychologist, uh affiliated with physicians for a national health care program and the Western PA Coalition for Single Payer Health Care. So I would invite uh whoever among the three of you would like to open to uh get us started this evening. Okay. Well how is that I can tell it's on. Um well, first of all, I just want to thank um Allegheny County Council, uh, all of the representatives that are here who um voted to allow us to have this public hearing. Um it uh was a little bit of a a hard sell to get the idea going that maybe locally we can do something about these problems that affect people nationally. So I'm very grateful. Also, um Mr. Klein, uh I think your comments are spot on. Um Paul Farmer is also a hero of mine, and uh I think Walter Cronkite is also uh very correct. So I am going to start today talking about medical debt, why is our system broken and how can we fix it? We're here to talk about the crisis in health care in this country and bring it home to where we live actually in Allegheny County. We will talk about the massive amount of debt carried by many, why it is this way, and what is the solution. So first of all, we should talk a little bit about what's the impact of medical debt. What are the consequences? Well, it's a very widespread problem, and often it's hard to quantify. They avoid medical care to avoid more debt, they get sicker. They have GoFundMe pages to help out. It's absolutely ridiculous in the world's wealthiest country that this is happening. So some of the statistics, well, um everybody knows that the costs of premiums are rising. Americans may pay upwards of $4,000 a year for their insurance coverage, but get no coverage for mental health or dental care. The debt situation in the country is affecting a hundred million people, and it prevents families, especially black families, from building wealth, savings, and assets that are needed to access America's high-priced medical system. People suffer, they avoid medical care, and they get sicker. And finally, uh a cruel reality is that a cancer diagnosis is often financially devastating. Cancer patients are far more likely to declare bankruptcy than people without cancer. So first we need to understand exactly how insidious the invasion of profiteering has become into our health system. Top of the list, health insurance. Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance have increased by 200%, 200% since 1999, while wages have increased only 47%.