Fieger proposes insurance pool to cut medical costs

Fieger unveiled his health care platform yesterday at a news conference outside a Wayne County Health Department branch in this Detroit suburb.

"We all recognize there is a crisis in health care," Fieger said. "The crisis is not so much one of quality as it is one of cost and access to quality treatment."

Fieger's three-point program calls for:

n Passage of a "patient bill of rights." It would restrict the ability of health insurers to impose medical treatment decisions on doctors and patients, put mental health treatment on par with other care and let patients sue health insurers over treatment decisions.

n Creation of a state health insurance pool to buy health care coverage in bulk. Individuals and employers would pay a $10 membership fee. Fieger said the idea, similar to the former state Accident Fund for worker's compensation insurance, would cut premiums 25 percent to 35 percent.

n Stricter state oversight of health insurers and providers. Insurers would be required to pay out at least 80 percent of their premiums for health services. He would increase the number of state inspectors and investigators for health care professionals.

Fieger accused Engler of gutting the state's mental health system by closing state mental hospitals. He said Engler has neglected public health and welfare while serving private business interests.

"There is a corrupt relationship between the present administration and the insurance industry," Fieger said. "The insurance industry owns Mr. Engler."

Engler campaign spokesperson Maureen McNulty called the charge unfounded and its maker unreliable.

"Geoff Fieger continues on a daily basis to make wild and scurrilous charges ... and he is not held accountable for his vitriol," McNulty said.

A state health insurance pool would expand state government and lead to the hiring of thousands of people, McNulty said. And she said a state insurance pool would unfairly compete with private insurers.

"It's another figment of Geoff Fieger's fevered imagination," she said.

As governor, Fieger said he would seek repeal of the state certificate of need law for health care facilities. That law stands in the way of free-standing outpatient centers for surgery, child birth and other services, he said.

"Free-standing outpatient surgery centers are up to 50 percent less costly than hospital-based services, yet certificate of need rules prohibit their development," Fieger said.

The Engler campaign said Fieger's attack on the governor's health policies was hypocritical because of the harm Fieger has caused medical care providers as a malpractice lawyer.

McNulty cited a Feb. 9 letter from Fieger to the Northeast Guidance Center in Detroit. Fieger demanded that the nonprofit mental health agency pay up on a $6 million jury judgment in the death of a 9-year-old boy hit by one of its vans.

"I will close down Northeast Guidance Center," Fieger wrote. "I am not kidding. You had better have someone come up with the money."

Fieger spokesperson June West said, "Geoff does have an obligation to his client to make sure that when a judgment is awarded, that they pay what the judge orders."

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