By Al Hackle
Regional News Editor U.S. Senate candidate Michael Coles, on a visit Tuesday to Ogeechee Technical Institute, said he wants to reform health insurance to make it more affordable and portable. Coles, founder of the Atlanta-based Great American Cookie Company, is the Democratic nominee to oppose Republican U.S. Sen. Paul Coverdell in the November election. “We need a health care bill of rights that lets you choose your own doctor and sue your HMO or insurance company if they don’t allow you the best treatment,” Coles said. He was answering a question from the audience of Ogeechee Tech students and faculty members. Health maintenance organizations and insurance companies now control which hospitals and doctors many Americans can use, Coles said. He repeated a story about young parents, living south of Atlanta, who had to go to Atlanta to find a hospital that would take their insurance, and their child died along the way. “I’m not a person who believes in all kinds of litigation, but the fact of the matter is that you have always had the ability to sue your doctor, but the decision of health care has been taken from doctors to insurance companies and HMOs, and it’s always some bureaucracy making those decisions,” Coles said. Coles said something needs to be done for the 41 million Americans who do not have health insurance, but he does not believe the government should insure them. He said the private sector should provide the insurance, but the government has to step in to require that companies make it easier for people to get insurance, for one thing by making it easier to form coverage groups. Two years ago, Congress passed the Kassenbaum -- Kennedy Bill, which made health insurance portable for employees who leave a company. They can keep the insurance, although their premiums often rise. The bill also made it illegal for insurers to deny health insurance to people with a pre-existing condition who were covered under insurance at one employer, then changed jobs. “All of that helped, but here’s the problem. ... It didn’t go far enough,” Coles said. “If you lose your job and you lose your health care and you can take something that’s costing your company $200 a month and you go out now on your own, and that same health insurance is $1,000 a month, that’s portability without affordability.” He suggests the law should allow people to take not just the health insurance, but the premium with them, remaining part of the original group. Coles, who never attended college, told Ogeechee Tech students he has great respect for those who continue in school, especially those who return to it in adulthood. |
