Poll: Rhode Islanders want universal health coverage

by Jim Baron

PROVIDENCE – By large majorities, Rhode Islanders believe health care should be safe and affordable for everyone as a right, that both government and employers should be involved in providing it and that the state’s RIte Care program should be expanded to include low-to-moderate income people, not just the poor.

A whopping 95 percent of those surveyed agreed with the statement that everyone has a right to quality, affordable health care coverage, with 85 percent saying they strongly agree. Seventy-three percent said “large profitable corporations” should pay a “fair share” of employee health coverage.

“Health care that once seemed reliable is increasingly being priced out existence,” said Ann Rhodes, director of Rhode Island for Health Care, the group that commissioned the poll of 400 registered voters in Rhode Island conducted by telephone Sept. 19-22.

The survey, conducted by the national polling firm Lake Research Partners, has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.

“Health care is different from maybe even other government services, but certainly from other business decisions,” said Marti Rosenberg, spokesperson for the Health Care Organizing Project.

“People look at the health care system and think about the health care system and they see an ailing relative, they fear for a sick child in the middle of the night, they think about an elderly parent and they realize that something different has to happen. They are not approaching this like any other market solution to a problem.”

Pointing to figures she said show that 64 percent of respondents agreed with the statement, “Rhode Island has to take strong action on health care because the federal government failed to” as opposed to 30 percent who saw health care a s a federal responsibility.

Moreover, Rosenberg said that the state government should guarantee that all Rhode Islanders should have affordable health coverage, even if it has to raise taxes to do it. Of those, 41 percent said they strongly agree with that statement.

“This is a ringing endorsement of state government where we don’t usually see a ringing endorsement in state government,” Rosenberg said.

“Rhode Islanders recognize that we are in a health care crisis and they want the sate to do something about it,” Rhodes said.

Ted Almon, CEO of the Claflin Company, which he said provides health coverage for “several hundred employees and their families,” said he became involved in health care issues “from a business perspective and figure out essentially how to control the cost. Since then, however, he said he has “come to be an advocate for a universal, single-payer, tax-supported health care system.”

“Fundamentally, health care is a right. We require that all our acute care providers, the hospitals, provide treatment to people who show up in their emergency rooms. Businesses don’t do that. Businesses only treat customers who can pay.”

“My original impression that competition would solve the problem turned out to be exactly wrong,” he said. “Competition turned out to be part of the problem instead of part of the solution.”

Lt. Gov. Charles Fogarty, chairman of the Long-Term Care Coordinating Council, weighed in on the poll’s findings.

“I share Rhode Islanders’ concerns about the costs of and access to, health care in the state,” Fogarty said in a written statement. “It is unconscionable that in the 21st century, we still cannon ensure that all Rhode Islanders do have access to affordable, quality care.

“If there is any state where we can achieve health care for all it is Rhode Island, where we have already made so much progress,” Fogarty said. “All Rhode Island leaders must commit to working together to reach this goal. It is unacceptable that the number of uninsured is rising in Rhode Island and throughout the nation.”

“Action must be taken because health insurance costs are outpacing wages and general inflation,” he added. “Many employers are being forced to require workers to pay more of their premium, which increases the burden on low and middle-income workers. It also is forcing some small employers to drop health insurance completely.”

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