Aging population puts burden on ailing health care system

A private forum held Tuesday morning at Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport focused on a very public concern: the nation's ailing health care system and how to remedy it.

U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith checked into the hospital for a 40-minute informal exchange of ideas about rural health care issues with Samaritan administrators, board and foundation members, and representatives from other health-related organizations in Lincoln County. "If you don't have health care, you don't have quality of life," said Smith, succinctly summarizing a main concern echoed by most of the folks gathered in the hospital's education conference room. Health care, he added, is necessary "to keep body and soul together.'

Dona Lethbridge RN, director of Oregon Coast Community College's (OCCC) fledgling nursing program, led off the forum with an overview of the program and the need for it on the central Oregon coast.
The two-year program leads to an Associate of Applied Science Degree in nursing. Students who successfully complete the first year are eligible to take the standardized National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) to become a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN). Those who successfully complete both years can take the NCLEX, which the Oregon State Board of Nursing uses "to determine whether or not a candidate is prepared for entry-level nursing practice." Graduates who pass the exam are licensed as Registered Nurses (RNs).

The first OCCC class is set to graduate in June. The local need for nurses, said Lethbridge, is acute.

"Lincoln County is economically disadvantaged, and with our elderly demographics, we have many health problems to deal with," she noted.

The nursing pool itself is aging. About 75 to 80 percent of practicing nurses are 55 or older, and Lethbridge said most of them commonly retire at age 54. That fact underscores the growing health care crisis across a nation with an aging population.

Community support is abundant, and OCCC has forged a clinical partnership with the hospital. Financially, though, Lethbridge said it's been a struggle, both individually for the program participants and for the program itself, which currently operates out of an old beauty school building. While OCCC is on the verge of constructing a new facility, state and federal funding for education-related endeavors is always at a premium, often becoming as scarce as qualified nurses and other health care professionals in rural areas.

Pacific Communities Hospital chief administrator David Bigelow said the partnership with OCCC is one they sought, and have since valued and nurtured. The main reason is the difficulty they face enticing qualified health professionals - nurses, doctors, pharmacists, physical therapists, and others - to set up practice in rural areas.

"We're reaching out to education institutions to support the kind of grow-your-own methodology of building a workforce," he said.

Such partnerships still require sources of funding at the local, state, and federal levels, and long-time legislators like Smith can step in and help provide some salve to ease the financial pain, sometimes by earmarking funds for specific purposes,health clubv including education and recruitment programs. Smith referred to working with New York senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to obtain authorization for a bill that provides funding for, among other things, nursing programs like the one at OCCC.

"America as a society is aging, and most health care dollars are spent when we're older," Smith noted.

Those demographics, combined with shrinking resources, will make health care "one of those issues that will come into sharper and sharper focus until we reach a resolution," he said. Smith opposes President George W. Bush's proposal for Medicare reductions, noting they must keep the program "afloat and healthy to keep people healthy."

Those words provided a dose of comfort to Bigelow Beauty Health, who had Medicare and Medicaid high on his list of concerns.

But the overarching issue for him is health care reform, revamping a skewed system that leaves too many folks without health care. "Our system based on entitlement is imbalanced and unfair," Bigelow declared, referring to the American system based on ability to pay. "You're entitled only if you're old enough, poor enough, or work for the right employer. That has to change."

Smith agreed, but cautioned that government should not become the health care provider, instead working to make it affordable and accessible for everyone. "There are many different ideas on how best to accomplish this," he added health club, referring specifically to the Healthy Americans Act put forth by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and proposals by former Oregon governor John Kitzhaber.

The complexity of the issue prevents it from ever being resolved to everyone's satisfaction, Smith said, noting that all health care is rationed since demand always exceeds supply. With the Oregon Health Plan, the rationing takes place up front. Those covered by the state plan know what they can and can't have in terms of medical procedures from the get-go.

"There is a growing recognition that we need to provide the mechanism for access to health care, with a certain minimum," Smith said, noting that health care is the nation's most urgent domestic issue, one that will only become more prominent until it's resolved.

"However, if health care is a right, it's also responsibility," he concluded. "We all have to be engaged in a responsible way Beauty Health."