With health care reform currently the nation’s hottest issue, Delegate Donna M. Christensen will hold her own town hall meeting Monday on the subject and what it means for the Virgin Islands via local radio stations.
The meeting will be broadcast live from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on Radio One WVWI AM 1000 and WSTX AM 970.
Christensen said in a press release Friday that she is using radio to reach the widest audience possible.
"It is important for everyone to get the straight facts about what health care reform means for us as individuals and as a community," she said.
She said the goal is to promote dialogue on health reform, clear up any misconceptions and educate residents on provisions in the bill that include the U.S. territories.
Christensen’s focus is Medicaid, spokesman Monique Clendinen Watson said. The amount of money the territory receives for Medicaid is capped, and Watson said Christensen has long lobbied to get the cap lifted.
According to Christensen’s office, Medicaid to the territory is capped at $13 million. She wants to up that to $47 million in two years and $71 million by 2019.
That said, Watson said Christensen supports many other provisions in the health care reform bill. However, Watson pointed out that there are several bills circulating, and the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate must agree on a final bill before health care reform becomes law.
While many of Christensen’s colleagues have faced angry crowds opposed to how health care reform is shaping up, Watson said the office received only "one or two" calls from Virgin Islands residents opposed to the plans under consideration.
However, because she is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which passed America’s Affordable Health Choices Act on July 31, Watson said her office has received many calls and faxes from stateside residents opposed to changes.
To combat what he sees as misconceptions about health care reform on the airwaves, the Internet and at town hall meetings across the country, President Obama’s senior advisor David Axelrod detailed in an email what health care reform will and won’t do.
He wrote that it will end discrimination for pre-existing conditions, end exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles or co-pays, force insurance companies to fully cover regular checkups and preventive care, prohibit dropping coverage of seriously ill policy holders, make insurance companies charge the same rates for both men and women, end annual or lifetime caps on coverage, extend family coverage through age 26, and guarantee that insurance companies will renew policies.
Christensen encouraged Virgin Islands residents to call in with questions or concerns. She also urged residents to fax questions to her office at 778-5111 or 774-8033 before 11 a.m. Monday.
To learn more about the proposed health care reform, visit whitehouse.gov.
