Health care La Grande man joins ‘Mad as Hell Doctors’ on caravan to D.C.

A group of Oregon doctors got an enthusiastic send-off Tuesday at Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland as they began a national tour from Oregon to Washington, D.C., to urge Congress and the Obama administration to consider all options before settling on a plan to fix the health care system.

They call themselves the “Mad as Hell Doctors.” They are traveling across the nation to promote a single-payer health care plan.

“We believe that we should have an affordable, universal heath insurance system that covers everybody in the United States by putting everyone in the same risk pool,” said Bill Whitaker, a retired social worker from La Grande who is traveling with the doctors to help promote the cause. “There is nearly 47 million people who have no health insurance at all.”

Paul Hochfeld, an emergency room physician from Corvallis, said our nation’s health care system uses too many unnecessary drugs, specialists and tests that’s bloating the system financially.

“The people that are making decisions on our health care system are making the decision on what makes the most profits,” Hochfeld told KATU news.

Federal spending for health care totaled more than $600 billion in 2005 and keeps doubling every year, according to the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. The cost is expected to reach as high as $4.3 trillion by 2017.

“It costs nearly twice as much per person to deliver health care in the U.S. as it does in any other industrialized nation,” said Whitaker.

Not only are Americans spending more on health care, but out of the other 23 industrialized countries, the U.S. has the highest infant mortality rate, similar to Poland and Hungary, according to the Commonwealth Fund Scorecard in 2006. The U.S. also ranked among the bottom in health life expectancy at age 60, meaning Americans spend more years living in poor health than living happy, healthy lives.

“We’ve relied on a private system of health insurance tied to employment, whereas other countries simply say health insurance is a right to every person in their country,” said Whitaker.

With a custom-painted RV called the “Care-A-Van”, the group is traveling to Washington, D.C., stopping in major cities to conduct rallies, attend meetings, hold discussion panels and meet with local and national press to raise awareness.

To keep the buzz going during the trip, the group has made Facebook, YouTube and Twitter pages that it plans on updating daily. They also will upload videos on their website showing the days’ events.

They also hope to meet with President Barack Obama and rally in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 1.

“On Sept. 30, we will be in Gettysburg, Pa., and there we expect a large number of people with their own vehicles for the final trip to the White House,” said Whitaker.

The Mad as Hell Doctors have already been in contact with public officials in Washington and have secured meetings with some members of Congress. They also have a request to see the president, but their first request was denied, according to the organization’s website.

While there has been some resistance from the White House so far, the Mad as Hell Doctors are confident that as the road trip continues, their support will grow.

“We’ve already had a lot of support and the trip is just starting,” said Whitaker.

While many people support universal heath care, some are concerned about where the money would come from and how much control the government would have. But the Mad as Hell Doctors think the new system wouldn’t change as much as people think.

“A single-payer system would not change the delivery of health care at all — doctors would still be private individuals and working for private practices,” said Whitaker. “The only difference would be instead of filling out forms for the 200 or so insurance companies, they would receive their payment directly from one payer.”

Cheryl Simpson of La Grande, a social activist and a retired executive director of Idaho’s End of Life Coalition, a statewide advocacy group that promotes quality care at the end of life, agrees with Whitaker that there needs to be change.

“I’m mad as hell because a diagnoses of a life-threatening condition, such as cancer, is also a diagnoses of lost health insurance,” said Simpson. “If at any point in time they lose their employment or another situation arises, they will never get health insurance again, and that’s just not fair.”

For more information, visit www.madashelldoctors.com.