Wednesday, February 12, 2003

[State] Sen. [Mitch] Seabaugh is offering up legislation that he says will "help get more people health insurance." In reality, Sen. Seabaugh's legislation is designed to put money back in the hands of insurance companies and business owners at the expense of working families.

Sen. Seabaugh's bill allows 97 percent of all business in Georgia to offer "Healthcare Light." What is Healthcare Light? It's a cheaper form of insurance because it permits insurance companies to refuse to pay for mandatory healthcare tests. The kinds of healthcare tests that your company's insurance won't be paying for are as follows: pap smears, mammograms, PSA prostate cancer screening, colo-rectal screening, childhood vaccinations.

What is the practical impact of Sen. Seabaugh's bill? Well, for insurance companies and business owners, it's more money in their pocket. For working families, it's the difficult choice between paying for a pap smear out of their own pocket or choosing to forego the procedure and save money. Inevitably, some of the working families that choose to save money will suffer from undiagnosed cancer. The results for some of them will be tragic. Those working families who choose to scrape enough money together for the test will have to make a financial sacrifice somewhere else.

I spoke with state Rep. [Lynn] Westmoreland and he indicated his strong support for such legislation in the house. I have to wonder why Sen. Seabaugh and Rep. Westmoreland would vote for legislation that hurts the 40,000 working families with children that live in their district. Why would they want to trade the health of 40,000 working families for the profit margin of a few business owners and insurance companies?

Tonja Holder

Peachtree City

Board Member, Georgia Equality

www.georgiaequality.org