Health reform at what cost?

Katheryn Cummings says her family has adequate health-care coverage because she worked hard to raise five children and has spent 27 years in the workplace, outside the home. Cummings, who works at a local carwash, believes the current health-care system works in some areas, but should be changed in others.

"I do think the program is broken. I think it has been misused. It has not been honest and aboveboard," Cummings said. "Little people like us, we just have to sit around and watch it happen--if you don't voice your opinion. But sometimes you even wonder if that does any good. Sometimes they don't want to listen."

President Obama is pushing forward with his goal of passing comprehensive health-care reform by the end of the year.

Committees in the House and Senate have approved separate health-care reform bills in the past few months. Now the challenge for lawmakers lies in merging each bill, with a continued debate over providing a public option.

The Herald-News recently conducted a reader survey on the issue, and many respondents expressed a desire to keep the government out of managing health care.

Cummings, now of Lockport and formerly of Romeoville, responded to the reader survey. She said she does not want the president to make the rules for reform. She believes that government is not listening to the people in the recent efforts to change the system.

"I don't think that our leaders are listening to the middle-class people," Cummings said. "I think that our government should listen to the people. We put those people in office, and I think it is their duty to listen to us, whether they like it or not, whether they agree or not. The middle-class people have always been the backbone of this country."

"If health-care reform is what people are saying it is, I don't think the middle class people--and the older generation that has made this country great--I don't think it's for their benefit," she said.

In his survey response, Kenneth Delrose of Joliet responded to the question: "What changes would you like to see in how health care is administered?"

He wrote: "None. Stop socialized medicine! That would be a mistake."

Interviewed about the subject, Delrose used a quote attributed to President Lincoln: "You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."

Delrose said: "That was 150 years ago when he said that, and I believe it's every bit as true today as it was then."

"If the government starts doing for people in the fashion which they're proposing, then it won't be long before people feel like there's no incentive to do for themselves: 'Just let the government handle everything.'" he said.

Health-care reform should eliminate government involvement except for Medicare and Medicaid, said Harold Schreiner of Dwight.

"I look at what the government's done with Amtrak, and I'm not all that pleased with the way they're handling that," Schreiner said. "I'd rather have it in the private sector."

Schreiner said making the current health-care system more efficient would enable it to cover more people.

He said many hospitals and doctors take advantage of Medicare, providing and charging for services to people who don't need a particular procedure done.

"If you put the right kind of people in charge of what you do to Medicare plans--adjusting and taking those loopholes out--then that saves millions and millions of dollars. Then they can have Medicare expanded."

Mike Sheridan, of Mokena, opposes a public option for health-care reform, but listed several ideas to improve the current system:

• All children birth to age 18 would receive free medical, dental and vision insurance. Dental would not include orthodontics, braces or unnecessary cosmetic dental work.

• No person may be dropped by an insurance company because of any illness.

• People may not change their insurance company if they have a chronic pre-existing condition.

• Insurance premiums may be raised by the consumer price index plus 1 percent on an annual basis.

• All insurance would be tax-exempt: employer paid, employee paid, etc.

• No restrictions on an individual's choice of insurance companies. Insurance companies may sell their premiums anywhere in the United States.

• All elected federal officials would have only two medical insurance choices, a health-maintenance organization or a preferred-provider organization.

Among those who oppose government involvement, many fear the prospect of larger bureaucracy.

"Keep the government out, as a huge bureaucracy (bloated) will be created that will result in fraud, waste and every abuse imaginable as in all government-run programs," one reader said.

And another reader wrote: "Health care is a private issue that should be regulated by government, not administered by government."

Sun-Times Media contributed