Obama health plan gets a push here

Instituting health-care reform is "both a moral and economic imperative," U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz said yesterday at a City Hall news conference aimed at drumming up support for President Obama's health-care reform plan.

Backed by a legion of health-care professionals, Schwartz, D-Pa., said Obama's plan would make health care more affordable and improve the quality of care for all Americans.

Among the plan's cost-cutting features are provisions that would eliminate co-payments for seniors and reduce the cost of visits to primary care physicians, Schwartz said.

By increasing patients' access to their primary physicians, Schwartz said, the plan would improve the continuity of their care.

Schwartz also highlighted a number of consumer protections featured in the plan.

One would stop insurers from refusing coverage for pre-existing conditions. Another would require coverage to be explained in simpler language.

Dr. Valerie Arkoosh, president-elect of the National Physicians Alliance, was one of the many health-care professionals to voice support for reform yesterday.

Under the current system businesses are forced to cut back on health care due to its high cost, Arkoosh said, adding that doctors often spend more time speaking with health insurers than with patients.

The new system would provide patients with choices and give them a say in their own care, she said.

Dr. Donald Schwarz, the city's deputy mayor of Health and Opportunity, also spoke in support of the reform, saying that it is of particular importance to Philadelphia, which he called "the epicenter of American health care."

"We are in the city where our economy is probably the most influenced of all the other major cities in the country by health care and health-care industry," Schwarz said.

"Our population, our institutions and our government are all behind this as we move forward toward something that is too long delayed - a more rational, more equitable, more reasonable system of health insurance for all Americans."

The news conference was cut short when the high-pitched ring of fire alarms prompted the building's evacuation. It proved to be a false alarm. *