Friday, March 31, 2000
Rally for health care reform
Critics will tell horror stories
BY TIM BONFIELD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Hundreds, perhaps a few thousand people, are expected to “Blow the Whistle on Managed Care” at a Fountain Square rally scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Critics of the current health system — including doctors, mental health providers and consumers — plan to blow whistles and tell stories about service cuts and coverage denials they say have been caused by managed health care.
The event in Cincinnati will be one of 32 similar protests in cities nationwide to be held Saturday.
A kickoff event will be held today in Columbus.
The rallies have been organized by two national interest groups, Physicians Who Care and the National Coalition of Mental Health Professionals and Consumers.
The protests are all about politics in a presidential election season, but intended to be non-partisan.
Sponsors say concern about health care crosses party lines.
“We're having the event on April Fool's Day because we've all been taken for fools by this system,” said Dr. Jean Siebenaler, a family practice physician who also is running for the state legislature.
“Managed care has been around for a long time,” Dr. Siebenaler said.
“But it has taken this amount of time for people to realize this is not what they want in terms of a health care system.”
Speakers scheduled for Saturday include:
• Cincinnati area resident Brenda Barrett, who says her son nearly bled to death after being sent home from a same-day surgical procedure.
• Dr. Linda Peeno, a Louisville doctor who quit a job several years ago as a managed care executive.
• Angie King, a Toledo, Ohio, resident who filed a class action lawsuit after an insurer refused to pay for her daughter's cochlear implant.
3 • Richard Grant, a Cincinnati psychologist who says managed care policies are chasing professionals from practice.
Mental health and substance abuse fields have felt the sting of managed care even more intensely than the rest of medicine, said David Logan, executive director of the Prospect House, a residential treatment program for substance abusers.
The cost-cutting pressure and benefit limits that so often come with managed care have made it harder for people with chronic problems — especially substance abuse or mental health problems — to get the care they need.
“People with ongoing health problems have ongoing problems with managed care,” Mr. Logan said.
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