Lewis and Clark County to provide health care to all citizens

[eridani]

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/12/12/news/local/news03.txt

Members of Helena's health board say they're tired of waiting for national health care reform, and are launching their own project to provide health care to all citizens in the area.

The Lewis and Clark City-County Board of Health approved a resolution last week that says health care is a “basic human right” and that all citizens have “a right to access to a universal health care system.”

The next step is to appoint a task force that will assess the health care needs in the county and Helena metro area, where thousands of people are without health insurance.


Then the board will try to design some sort of plan or system that provides universal health care for the area.

“I fully understand that this is ambitious and little bit idealistic, but the discussion has to start somewhere,” said David Krainacker, a Helena physician and chairman of the health board. “A lot of great things have started with small groups of people working toward a goal.

“(Reform) is not going to come from the top; it's going to have to come from the bottom.”

The board's effort appears to be the only one of its type in the state, and possibly the region, said Alan Peura, a Helena city commissioner and board member who helped spearhead the project.

“Starting with health care as a human right, we thought maybe we can get to places that we never got to before,” he said Thursday. “We said, ‘Let's see what we can do to change the debate, and maybe end up with some solutions that we don't even know exist at this point.' ”

[snowbear]

1. I hope their plan turns out to be very successful!!

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And p.s. ~~ Merry Christmas Montanans! ~~

[vinylsolution]

2. Does that mean...

... Montana is now a province of Canada?