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Foxx brings health care debate to Statesville
Photo by Bruce Matlock
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Published: August 28, 2009
U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx showed up fashionably late to a meeting at a home medical supply facility in Statesville on Thursday afternoon, but her visit was well timed and well received.
Foxx, a Republican who represents the 5th District, spent about a half-hour shaking hands and speaking personally with the 50 or so people who gathered at Medi-Home Care, most of whom were employees of the company or involved in other aspects of home care.
Bridgette Seal, who manages the Medi-Home Care location in Mount Airy, told Foxx she led the congresswoman's campaign efforts in Surry County.
Seal then asked Foxx what she thought would happen with the health care reform efforts currently afoot in Congress.
"I don't know," Foxx said. "I don't think anyone knows what's going to happen. I think the whole thing is going to depend on what happens in Democratic districts."
Christina Smith, a registered nurse, asked Foxx how she felt about legislation that would allow hospitals to decide how Medicare dollars are spent. Smith said the plan is called "bundling," and calls for hospitals to receive all the Medicare dollars for a specific patient and then divvy the limited amount of money between the hospital, physicians involved in the case and future care providers.
"Either the acute care or the post-acute care will suffer," Smith said.
"Washington should be operating on science and logic," Foxx answered. "But unfortunately, that's not how it works up there."
Foxx agreed with many who spoke to her regarding their belief that most patients choose to receive as much care as possible in their own homes.
"I'm a big proponent of people staying in their homes as long as they can," Foxx said. "The patients would rather stay in their homes because they have been there many years and are most comfortable there. Plus, it is much less expensive for them to be there rather than in a hospital or other treatment center."
Jeff Taylor, Medi-Home Care's district manager, said his industry's biggest complaint now deals with something called competitive bidding.
Taylor explained that, in this system, different health care supply companies would bid to be the Medicare supplier for various pieces of equipment in different districts around the country.
"A patient could go home with oxygen, a wheelchair and a bed," Taylor said as an example. "That person would have to deal with three different suppliers and that could be confusing to a patient."
It could also put some smaller health supply companies out of business, according to Keith Miles, the site director of the Statesville Medi-Home Care location.
"We are not against competition," Miles said. "But this could really hurt a lot of businesses."
Foxx took the floor and said some of the measures taken by Congress regarding changes to the Medicare system were put in place to root out fraud.
"The problem is that what we end up doing is making hurdles for everyone to get over instead of going after the criminals and punishing them harshly," she said. "That's the direction we should be going."
Foxx then spoke again about the health care reform matter. She said that House Bill 3200 is filled with a lot of things that are not making the headlines and that are being misrepresented by top Democrats.
"The president and some members of Congress are not always telling the truth about what's in that bill," Foxx said. "But I'll tell you that is one scary bill."
Foxx said the bill is the result of an over-eager Democratic Party.
"The left thinks they've reached nirvana," Foxx said. "They have a majority in the House, a majority in the Senate and a liberal president and they think we need bureaucrats telling us how to take care of ourselves."
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