Public health professor Woodie Kessel will never forget his first patient.
Then a medical student, Kessel had to manually pump his patient’s heart to keep her alive. The woman, who had been stabbed by a gang, had lost so much blood that there was no longer enough oxygen reaching her brain. Ultimately, her wounds would be too much; Kessel and the rest of the medical team could not save her.
This experience inspired Kessel’s involvement in community health and opened his eyes to a disparity facing impoverished communities: Low-income people often do not have access to adequate emergency services and to health services that could, someday, save their lives.
About 30 students gathered in Anne Arundel Hall yesterday to eat pizza and listen to Kessel, former assistant U.S. surgeon general, speak about the benefits and drawbacks of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
The legislation, an Obama administration cornerstone that took full effect last year, has come under fire recently from Republican lawmakers and citizens who believe the statute is unconstitutional. Twenty-seven states have started or joined in existing legal suits against the act since it was passed by Congress in March 2010. These states are questioning the extent to which individuals can be required by law to maintain health insurance. Those who forego purchasing health insurance would be subject to a fine, according to the law’s language.
“A lot of opposition comes from some people in our country who have a real fear of government,” said Tom O’Neill, a junior government and politics major who attended last night’s event.
But Kessel doesn’t seem to think this law is going anywhere — in fact, he predicted that in the future the whole country will have a single-payer system, where the federal government would collect taxpayers’ money and provide insurance benefits for its people.
The act was needed, Kessel said, because the uninsured population of this country is concerning and warrants action.
Just last year, 50 million Americans under 65 — the age at which you can begin to receive Social Security benefits — were uninsured, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Kessel said a major problem for the uninsured is that they end up in the hospital because they have traditionally been unable to pay for preventative care such as screenings and vaccinations.
“If this gets fully implemented, all those people that didn’t need to be in the emergency room won’t be in the emergency room,” he said.
According to Adam Pampori, president of this university’s chapter of the American Medical Student Association, doctors are only responsible for stabilizing uninsured patients if they end up in the emergency room. After that, they are legally allowed to release them even if they need further care.
But that protection won’t come cheap — Kessel said the health-care law will cost the federal government about $938 billion over the next decade.
Other provisions Kessel highlighted as a victory for the American people were those that allow young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance plan until age 26, eliminate lifetime limits on coverage, cut pre-existing conditions for children and give tax breaks to small businesses that offer health care to their employees.
Many of the students who attended Kessel’s speech seemed to agree with his take on the health-care legislation and its future impact.
“I think [the Affordable Care Act] is a major step forward,” said Pampori, a senior bioengineering major who attended last night’s talk. “Most doctors are in favor because as doctors we have seen what happens to someone who doesn’t have insurance.”
hicks at umdbk dot com
