It has made too much sense to see its way through the legislative process

I was proud and pleased to have as my guests on the floor today, Dr. Zane Gates and Steeler great Deshea Townsend. Both men were here to help promote the free clinic legislation that Senator Ted Erikson introduced last year. We have been meeting with many people in state government and everyone thinks that this is a winning model for real health care, not health insurance. Everyone that is, except the Governor. He has the old system, of issuing access cards to people, stuck in his head. This system is far too costly and doesn’t really provide care, it just provides insurance. Many doctors will not accept access cards and therefore, no health care is provided. The free clinics plan could be adopted nationwide. So far, it has made too much sense to see its way through the legislative process. Maybe our dire financial straits will provide the opportunity to switch away from doing the same old thing. I can only hope that many opportunities for change are provided as things get tougher and that the Governor and legislature have the wisdom and guts to make big changes to existing ways of doing business.

- John