ELLENVILLE – Even though the debate regarding healthcare reform rages on in Washington, D.C., it's easy to forget that the discussions and decisions made at that far remove affect us right here in the Hudson Valley.

Interestingly, we may have a lot more influence than we might have first thought: Dr. Neil Calman, president and CEO of the Institute for Family Health and a member of the Ellenville Regional Hospital's board of directors, was appointed to the federal government's Health Information Technology Policy Panel in April. The panel is advisory to Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, regarding policies related to implementing health information technology in the United States. Calman took some time this week to offer his thoughts on the current healthcare debate, and how it affects residents in the Ellenville and Wawarsing area.

"I think that what the president is trying to do is absolutely right on target," said Calman. "I think that the country is long in need of a universal health care plan, and that one of the risks that we currently have is that people will get lost in the details and stop paying attention to what the big picture is, which is the incredible number of uninsured people we have in this country, and the amount of money that we spend caring for them for unnecessary things that could've been prevented if treated or found earlier.

"We absolutely need to have a universal health care plan, and the public option that he's proposing is really the only way to get from where we are to where we need to be."

Calman pointed out that skyrocketing medical costs are the number one cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States, calling the fact "a tragedy."

"Part of our problem is that everybody thinks of it from their own point of view today, and we all kind of believe that nothing can happen to us….The majority of Americans at any one time are covered, but there's still 40 to 60 million people who aren't. That group keeps changing, so I think when people have coverage, they don't want anybody to mess with it because they're afraid they could lose it. But meanwhile, all of us are vulnerable in some way of losing our health benefits."

Many of those in that situation, he said, are those that currently have jobs, but whose employers can't — or won't — provide health insurance. The costs of care for these individuals is astronomical, and they can't receive preventative care to avoid getting so sick that they can't work at all.

Calman also spoke about why and how community members taking advantage of Medicare, such as seniors, would benefit from the overhaul.

"Medicare has, for a long time, been the healthcare plan in this country that's provided people with the best access to health insurance, and the only flaw in the Medicare plan has been its lack of coverage of pharmaceuticals, which is something that really needs to be corrected even more than it has been corrected already. But I think that the president has talked about 'removing the donut hole,' which I think is a huge problem for seniors in terms of their medication coverage — that's another reason they should be supporting the plan. In addition, they're really building a healthcare system through this public option around what Medicare looks like. So if anything, I think they're going to see the Medicare program improve through an increasing number of people that are going to be in a publically insured healthcare program."

Calman also stressed the unique benefit in the Ellenville and Wawarsing area of the Family Health Center, which receives federal and state funding to provide care to all patients irrespective of their healthcare coverage.

"That's unique — it doesn't solve the nation's problem, but at least it gets a resource within our community that enables us to provide services to people regardless of what their insurance status is now."