ASUM hosts bipartisan health care forum

The five panelists presented varying perspectives and opinions.

By Kaylen Ralph

Published Oct. 2, 2009

Correction appended

A national debate became more localized Thursday night as students gathered to participate in a health care forum in Allen Auditorium.

The Associated Students of the University of Missouri sponsored the event in part with the MU College Democrats and College Republicans.

The purpose of the event was to raise awareness of the issues surrounding health care reform and to promote discussion among MU students.

"The main goal of the forum is to educate students here at Mizzou," College Democrats President Brian Roach said. "A lot of the discussion surrounding health care has been muddled in the last few months. A lot of people on both sides are trying to clear up the issues. This is an opportunity to get several objective perspectives from those individuals on the panel."

The panel was comprised of faculty, who each had five to seven minutes to present their opinion on the health care issue. Students were then given time to submit written questions to the panel to be answered during the question and answer portion of the forum, which constituted the majority of the event.

One of the panelists, law professor Phil Peters, told students in order to decide which side of the issue they reside on, they should answer three questions.

"Should the community make health care available to all?" Peters said. "If we're going to make it universal for all, how should we pay for it? And who do we trust to deliver it?"

During the Q&A portion, one student put these questions back to each of the five panelists. Economics professor Jeff Milyo answered the question part by part.

"Yes, prices, market," he said.

Philips answered all three questions by suggesting the U.S. looks toward Canada as a good model of how to achieve universal health care.

College Republicans Chairman Brett Dinkins said health care is not only an issue that will affect students later in life, but one some college students are already dealing with.

"A lot of students, especially incoming freshmen, are getting taken off their parent's insurance once they hit the 18 or 21 mark," Dinkins said. "So this is something they're going to be coming onto pretty quickly and the changes made will be long lasting. This is something they're going to have to deal with. They need to be aware of what's going on because it will definitely affect them later."

Roach agreed students needed to take a more active position and role in this debate.

"If you look at students and specifically those individuals 18 to 35, we're the largest age cohort of uninsured Americans," Roach said. "If you look at the massive amounts of debt student are racking up from the cost of college, students can't afford health insurance. We have the mindset as students that we're invincible so we let things like buying health care insurance fall by the wayside when it comes to that or paying off college debt."

Freshman Laura Ebone attended the forum at the suggestion of a friend. She said she was confused by the health care debate and wanted to gain some perspective from the discussion.

"I'm hoping to gain a better perspective on how universal health care could be considered a bad thing," Ebone said. "I'm a liberal so I'm for universal health care, but I want to understand why people are objecting to this idea."

At the conclusion of the event, each of the panelists had the opportunity to give overarching closing remarks. Kristofer Hagglund, associate dean of Health Policy and Academic Affairs, had the last word and expressed his happiness about having the opportunity to discuss this issue with students, something he has wanted MU to do for 20 years.