Marshalltown, Iowa
A highly engaged group of Marshalltown citizens gathered at the Iowa Valley Community College on Thursday evening for a lively conversation about health care and financial security. Participants included a former college instructor, librarian, homemakers, bank teller, a retired waitress, retired factory workers, county workers and independent business owners.
There was agreement in the group of the need for basic health care plans that would be affordable and accessible health care for all Americans, at the same time, there was concern the government would be incapable of managing a national health care system.
The group also agreed on the need for financial education for all beginning in grade school and through college. There was considerable discussion about the lack of incentives for savings, contrasted with the ease of obtaining loans. The group felt there is overwhelming need for Americans to understand how to save, how to invest and how to budget.
There was also discussion about the need for business and industry to change their human resource practices. One participant, who also volunteers for SCORE, an entrepreneurial resource program, lamented the situation where middle-age workers have had an accident on the job and lose their jobs. He comments that he is deeply bothered by the fact that people who get hurt in working for industry end up getting abandoned by them.
The group agreed that business should be required to live up to a business code of ethics for their workers.
Dubuque, Iowa
Stormy weather didn’t keep a group from gathering at the Eleanor Roosevelt Middle School in Dubuque.
One participant noted that Cuba was the only country in the world where all citizens have the same coverage for healthcare. Others thought that there should be some kind of baseline of coverage for Americans, leaving the option for people to pay out-of-pocket for any additional coverage they wish to purchase. Many expressed that they think people should receive care when it is necessary and desirable. One participant suggested that if the government is providing a baseline for care, they should cover everything, instead of everything being so departmentalized (also including dental, eye care, etc.).
With regard to Social Security, one gentleman said if the system was privatized he would want similar investments for all, so that fluctuations would not mean there would be winner and losers (all would stay the same).
What is security?
Manchester, Iowa
A group that included some first generation immigrants from Europe gathered in Manchester at the Community Center to discuss the importance of health care and long-term financial security. Right away the group began discussing shortfalls in the United States’ healthcare system in relation to the systems in Europe. They expressed that the care in their native land was sufficient and no one fell through the cracks. This was important to them.
The group agreed that people should start taking preventative measures to lower health costs and employers need to continue to fulfill their responsibility by helping with health costs. There was a strong feeling about partisan politics and lobbyists inhibiting what real people need in America.
Waterloo, Iowa
Allen College was the location of the 34th conversation for the Divided We Fail effort in Iowa. The participants came from a wide variety of occupations, including a lawyer, truck driver and several healthcare workers.
The conversation yielded a unique perspective from the healthcare field dealing with prescription drugs. It started with the story of a healthcare worker analyzing a situation where an individual was forced to pay a seven-hundred dollar co-pay for a bottle of pills, and was forced to use a credit card to cover the cost. Fearing this situation, participants called for action by the government to limit sky-rocketing costs of drugs.
Another participant had recently retired. She used COBRA to continue her insurance, but the coverage has a gap of eight months where she will have no insurance before she is eligible for Medicare. Other’s shared in the fear of being uninsured as well.
One participant was against universal healthcare because he had smoked for a number of years and he didn’t think that others should have to pay for his poor choices.
Common ground was reached by the group when they agreed that the government should provide a program that would cover those who fall through the cracks with affordable coverage.
Iowa Falls, Iowa
A variety of interesting perspectives were shared during an afternoon conversation at Ellsworth Community College. A retired teacher, retired farmers, a small business owner, health care workers, one self-employed and one unemployed individual, amongst others, joined the conversation.
There was a strong fear collectively from the group about the possibility of a health disaster ruining their financial well-being. There was also a shared concern about the widening gap between the rich and the poor in our country.
Part of the conversation was dedicated to the pooling of small businesses and those who are uninsured to lower premiums and get more people health insurance. The small business owner in the crowd said that she had looked into that but rates were not terribly attractive. Another participant suggested the pooling could be expanded to unions and trade associations that organize small business and groups to make pools larger and reduce costs. Most agreed that is was not right for large corporations to have access to cheaper health care that small business cannot.
One gentleman concluded that the candidate (for President) who will be elected, is the one with the plan for all of society.
