Pioneer Press - Bean Discusses Bill With Business People

PUBLISHED: April 06, 2010

U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean, D-8th, held a roundtable discussion with small business owners in the district to discuss the new federal health care bill.

Bean met with nearly 30 small business owners over lunch March 31 at McGonigal's Pub, 105 S. Cook St., Barrington.

Many owners expressed gratitude toward Bean for her vote in favor of the bill, but there were still questions as to how the new law will affect their businesses.

Damian Christianson, director at Web advertising and marketing company InterVantage in Hoffman Estates, said the new health care system will allow the company to hire people without first having to calculate how much the new employee's health insurance will cost because of preexisting conditions.

"It's amazing to watch how many people are making career decisions just based on health insurance," he said.

Susan Padula, of Syclo, a mobile software development company, also based in Hoffman Estates, said she supports the bill but remains concerned about the cost of health care. She said in 2000 Syclo spent $5,600 per family to provide health care coverage to its employees and in 2010 it was $16,000 per family. Syclo has 125 employees, she said.

James O'Donnell, vice president of Camcraft, a Hanover Park manufacturing company, also said he supports the bill but shared Padula's concerns about the escalating costs. He fears the system could collapse if the costs continue to escalate.

Bean said reforming health insurance and transforming the health care system in order to lower costs go hand-in-hand. She said electronic patient records and a payment system that reimburses quality of treatment will help lower the cost of medical services and subsequently, health insurance.

"When we have better care, we have lower costs," she said.

Bean told a story of taking her 90-year-old father-in-law to the emergency room out of precaution because he had numbness in his left arm. She said while he was being tested for the numbness he did not eat throughout the afternoon and developed a headache.

Since he did not have a headache when he arrived at the hospital, Bean believed the headache was due to him not eating a meal for five hours, but a doctor viewed it as a symptom and ordered a CT scan.

She said the CT scan showed he was fine and as soon as he ate, his headache went away.

"Every one of us has had these kinds of experiences with the system," Bean said. "Simple, best practices could avoid a lot of unnecessary costs."

She said the bill will eliminate inefficiencies such as the situation with her father-in-law because it mandates electronic patient records be maintained, which will increase communication among medical professionals so they are not performing redundant or unnecessary tests.

Barrington resident Dan Sherry, owner of Kennedy's Creative Awards in Waukegan, asked whether a public option for a government-run health care system would become reality in the near future.

"I couldn't tell you," Bean said. "I don't think that's happening anytime soon."