The Daily Times

Area residents who are curious about health care reform can get information Saturday in Knoxville.

“It’s the law of the land now,” said Dr. Carole Myers, assistant professor at University of Tennessee’s College of Nursing.

The landmark legislation that President Obama signed last March aims to provide health care to 32 million uninsured people, and make coverage more affordable to millions of others by expanding the reach of Medicaid and creating new subsidies.

Myers will be speaking at Saturday’s training session organized by the Tennessee Health Care Campaign, a nonprofit consumer health care advocacy group.

“Health care is such an emotional issue,” Myers said.

She also said there are misunderstandings and misconceptions about the health care reform bill.

According to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation — a nonprofit organization that focuses on major health care issues and global health policy — 42 percent of people polled were confused about the law a couple months after Obama signed the legislation.

Some provisions of the law have already been implemented, and others will be carried out over the next decade.

Changes that have already occurred because of the reform include allowing parents to keep children on their insurance plans until their 26th birthdays and that insurance companies can’t deny coverage to a child because of a pre-existing condition, Myers said.

Myers said health care is a divisive issue. Some people don’t like the idea of being required to get health insurance and call the reform unconstitutional.

Myers said that some people wonder why reform has to deal with so much, so fast.

“We love incremental change for some reason,” she said. “But it doesn’t work.”

But she said she would rather see deliberation and passion about the topic than disinterest.

“I’d be more concerned without debate,” she said.

In addition to a presentation from Myers Saturday, participants will break into groups to get an idea about how they are personally affected by the health care plan.

An insurance representative will be on hand to answer questions and participants will also learn how to write letters to newspapers or legislators about health care.

For more information visit http://www.tenncare.org .

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