Bonners Ferry Local Guide including all of Boundary County Idaho

Universal health care is becoming universally popular

Tuesday, March 20, 2007; CDAP

President-ial candidates are calling for universal health care, national physician associations want it, and the Idaho Medical Association has asked the state to look into the issue. And now, the medical staff at Kootenai Medical Center has voted to support the call for reform. All 120 who voted last week supported "Principles for Reform of the U.S. Health Care System," which asks for health care coverage for all in a shared public and private effort. "The purpose of doing it at all was to let the Legislature and the governor know that all the doctors in Coeur d'Alene were behind it," said Dr. Robert McFarland, board member for Idaho Medical Association and Coeur d'Alene family practice physician. The vote doesn't effect immediate change and it wasn't about picking a plan, but it lets everyone know change is wanted and needed, said Dr. Rolf Nesse, a local universal health care activist. "We understand there's a problem," he said. "The idea is basically to give a more permissive environment to the Legislature to look at what's going on in the country." The KMC medical staff vote parallels Idaho Medical Association thinking, said Bob Seehusen, chief executive officer for the IMA. He said he hadn't heard of any other hospital's medical staff in the state taking a similar vote. "I think that's very progressive thinking of Kootenai Medical Center, and it certainly shows good leadership," Seehusen said. The number of uninsured in Idaho -- at 200,000 and 18 percent of the population -- will only grow, he said. - Full Story