CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, November 7, 1994
3A
Most college students unconcerned with health care
By Manny Lopez
Kansan staff writer
College students are invincible.
Or at least they think they are until an illness or accident happens, said James Strobl, director of student health services at the Watkins Memorial Health Center. At the same time, he said that many people in the health care business ignored college students because they were, for the most part, healthy people.
Either way, the issue of health care affects everyone.
"Health education will play a big role in the future of health care." Strobi said. "Also, there will probably be fewer physicians and more nurse practitioners seeing patients."
Since the Clinton health care plan failed in Congress this fall, Kansans are centerring
their attention on how to refine insurance laws, how to measure quality and outcome and focusing on student health care, said Sandy Praeger R-Lawrence.
"It's still too early to tell if the failure of universal health care is positive or negative," she said. "I don't think we'll see much of a revival of government-run universal health care system."
Praeger, who is chairwoman of the Health Reform Legislative Oversight Committee, said she thought universal health care failed because it did not address what programs and procedures would be paid for by the government. She said the health care issue was not a new topic in government, but was brought to the public's attention because of the Clinton health plan.
"The issue has been around since the late 80s," she said. "The health care debate elevated the issue to its current level of prominence. It put the fear of God into the hospitals, doctors and insurance companies. They said let's wait on universal health care and give us a chance to fix it. So, we'll wait and see."
Even though universal health care failed, Praeger said she thought the state of Kansas would fare better than some states because of its commitment to monitoring and reforming insurance laws to help insure more people.
"In Kansas, reform has been centered around the insurance industry," she said. "In so doing, we have increased the availability and decreased the costs. More people in the pool means that costs will stay down."
That pool, she said, included many rural residents and non-traditional students. But, she said the government needed to be careful not to admit too many high risk people into the system.
In November, Strobli, Praeger and other student health center directors and students will meet at the University of Kansas to discuss ways to improve student influence to health care issues in the Legislature.
While most students are not in that high risk sector, most also do not think about health care coverage, Strobl said. College health is an important aspect of the entire issue because there were about 150,000 students in Kansas who may not have health insurance, he said.
While the future of health care is sure to change, so are the people who will be administering health care.
"We're going to be stuck in it no matter what happens," said T Duncan, a second-year medical student at the University of
That thought was echoed by Praeser.
Kansas Medical Center. "There is so much money in health care, but there is still a demand for primary care physicians."
Duncan said there was discussion among medical students regarding the future of health care, but because students had no control on the issue, they were not too concerned. No matter what, he said the public needed to remember that health care was just like any other business and too much government intervention could cause unforeseen problems.
"Health care is headed in the right direction," she said. "We are undergoing some pretty dramatic changes, which is market driven and that is good. Competition is good as long as it is good healthy competition. It all depends on how we respond from the government sector."
GOVERNOR
GRAVES—He said his priorities for health care included expanded access, including the elimination of exclusions for pre-existing conditions, portability of insurance coverage, patient
choice of providers and cost containment. He believes the best method to meet these priorities is the market system, not government control. He said he supported evolutionary changes that fix problems, rather than a total overhaul of a system that provided excellent health care to the vast majority of Kansans.
WHERE THE CANDIDATES STAND
SLATTERY— He said he was committed to making comprehensive health insurance available to all Kansans. He said government should leave the practice of medicine in the hands of
Jim Slattery (D)
ATTORNEY GENERAL
physicians, but state government had a role to play in making health insurance protection affordable for Kansans who currently are uninsured or underincurred due to costs. He said he would seek expanded roles for nurses and funding through the National Health Care Corps for health care providers in under served areas.
Carla Stovall (R)
SCHODDROT—He said he took this issue very personally since he had two artificial hips. He said that everyone should receive health insurance.
Richard Schodorf (D)
MEYERS — "I opposed the Clinton play because it is mandatory and bureaucratic," she said, "Small businesses are the backbone of America, and there are a lot of small business hanging on by
U.S. HOUSE - 3RD DISTRICT
their fingernails right now. A mandate would kill them."
Judv Hancock (D)
HANCOCK — "I did not support many of the key elements of the Clinton plan, but I commanded the president. I think it is disgraceful that no meaningful reform was passed due to
the lobbying that stymied Congress. I hope that when we reconvene, we will find an acceptable compromise."
U.S. HOUSE — 2ND DISTRICT
BROWNBACK — He said that we had a fundamentally sound system that needed a few evolutionary changes. He said we didn't need to change health care radically like the Clinton health care plan.
Sam Brownback (R)
John Carlin (D)
CARLIN — He said that bipartisan health care plan needed to be developed. He said the original reasons that health care reform was started needed to be looked at again to develop the plan.
KANSAS HOUSE - 44TH
Barbara Ballard (D)
BALLARD — She said she believed that policies that people had and were happy with didn't need to be affected. But that those without access, especially children, need to be helped. She said the issue needed to be negotiated between everyone involved so that all parties were getting something beneficial to them.
KANSAS HOUSE — 45TH
SLOAN — "It's not singly a question of who has access to health care but who's going to pay for it," he said. He said he supported incremental health care reform, not comprehensive health care reform.
Forrest Swail (D)
SWALL — "The issue has been made more complicated by insurance companies," he said. He said Kansas needed to move toward a community rating, in which the entire state had a single premium.
KANSAS·HOUSE — 46TH
SCHMIDT—Eric Schmidt could not be reached for comment
Eric Schmidt (R)
Troy Findley (D)
KANSAS HOUSE - 47TH
FLOWER — She supports universal health care and thinks Kansas will find ways to incrementally improve. She does not support a state plan as yet because she thinks a federal plan eventually will be passed
Joann Flower (R)
Charlie Geist (D)
GEIST—He said older residents in the rural areas were very concerned with health care. He said he was concerned about people's access to health care, and the issue should be studied thoroughly before the government.
ernment made decisions
DOUGLAS COUNTY COMMISSION
Mark Buhler (R)
Lisa Blair (D)
private corporations to help those services."
bLAIR — "Gov ment needs to operate a little more private enterprise," she said. "We, as government, can't do it all. We need to provide partnerships with
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