PNHP Members Featured in the Bemidji Pioneer

The Bemidji Pioneer, April 12, 2011

*Knowledge is power: BSU students host public forum on health care option*

By Anne Williams

After asking people in the area what they knew about single-payer health care, Bemidji State University student Karen Crabtree said she met several people who were unfamiliar with the topic.

So, for a social work class project, she and classmates Erica Jepson and Rebecca Baumgart set up a free public forum on single-payer health care Friday morning at Bemidji High School. More than 20 people attended.

The forum featured Molly Maas, family practice physician's assistant with Minneapolis-based Johnson Healthcare Associates Inc., and Dr. Ralph Bovard, a public health doctor at HealthPartners Specialty Center in St. Paul. Both are advocates of the organization Physicians for a National Health Program.

Single-payer health care refers to a system in which a government-run organization collects all health care fees and pays out all health care costs. It would be federally financed and administered by a single public insurer at the state or regional level, therefore eliminating the need for private insurance.

By setting up the public forum, the BSU students received credit toward a class requirement of 15 hours of volunteer community service. The requirement encourages students to take part in a service learning project. Last February, a different group of social work students hosted a legislative meeting on the issue of mental health.

"We thought it would be good to educate people because anyone we talked to never heard about (single-payer health care) before," Crabtree said.

Baumgart said she became interested in hosting the forum after hearing her peers talk about the single-payer health care option. She asked if she could be a part of their group so she could learn more about it.

Jepson said bringing in speakers from the Twin Cities was "easy," and said she felt it was important the community be educated about health care options.

"I think it went really well," Jepson said. "We were expecting anywhere from five to 50 people. We really had no idea how many people to expect. I was just really happy with the turnout."

General Practice 3, which is the class the BSU students are enrolled in, teaches social work students on community organizing and how to create change within a community. Emphasis also is placed on how to advocate for a cause.

"Social work works a lot with individuals, groups and communities and so this is one option we wanted to educate people about," Jepson said.

Cheryl Byers, associate professor of social work at BSU, said the course offers students the opportunity to learn outside the classroom in neighborhoods.

"Much of what social workers do is community education on personal issues facing communities," Byers said. "This group of students wanted to educate people up here about this option."