Recently, I interviewed a remarkable
leader in the Marin community, Susan Adams. Mrs. Adams is a member of the Marin
County Board of Supervisors and represents the first district, which is the San
Rafael area. A passionate activist for helping people and preserving the
environment, Susan Adams has contributed a great deal to bettering the world
and has been behind many of the ideas that have been implemented in Marin
County. The motto that Mrs. Adams uses to encompass her philosophy is “Healthy
People Healthy Planet,” connecting the impact the planet and mankind have on
each other. Throughout her career, Mrs. Adams’ mission has been to “build
healthy communities” and she has worked hard to fight the injustices and
inequality she sees in community health and wellness.
One of Mrs.
Adams’ primary concerns deals with the incongruities in the healthcare system. Mrs.
Adams strongly believes that there has to be improved access to healthcare,
making it available to families, regardless of income or any other discrepancy.
Due to Mrs. Adams’ strong support in favor of improved accessibility to
healthcare, I asked her if she believes it is a viable possibility in the near
future for universal healthcare. Mrs. Adams does believe that there is a strong
possibility that her vision will become reality but she is unsure of just how
long that will take because healthcare is a nationwide issue. She continued to
explain how she has worked with the National Association of Counties, along
with 3,000 other counties in the country, “to help develop policy positions
about the implementation of what happened with the Affordable Care Act.” The
Affordable Care Act, commonly known as “Obamacare”, was signed into action in
2010 with the purpose of increasing the rate of coverage for health insurance
in America as well as reducing the overall cost of health insurance. One of the
aspects of the Affordable Care Act that coincides with Mrs. Adams’ views is
that healthcare should be made available to all applicants at the same rate
regardless of pre-existing conditions or gender; insurance companies should not
be able to exclude you for such reasons. Supervisor Adams has, for almost her
entire healthcare career, been a supporter of a single payer health system
because “when you look at the data and economics… and the health outcomes” of
countries utilizing a single payer/universal system, they have “populations
that live longer and live healthier for longer.” She continued to explain that
in America, we spend two to five times more per patient population than
countries, such as Canada, with a universal healthcare system.
The problem Adams has found in the
current healthcare system in America is that it allows insurance companies to
provide insurance packages to consumers and make a profit, which does not
happen in a single payer system. Recently, this has become more regulated as
rules have made it so that insurance companies can collect no more than fifteen
percent profit from the sale of these packages. In the past, some insurance
companies “took up to thirty percent of the income you make which means the
money is going to investors more so than actually providing the care.” What
Supervisor Adams believes to be more beneficial in a single payer system, like
Medicare, is that the customer pays their tax proportion and is covered for
healthcare. The issue with insurance companies not on a single payer system is
that they still have a for-profit basis. One of the recent issues with the
system is that insurance companies have to provide forty-four million new
people with healthcare, because it has become more regulated. This decision has
sparked controversy, for example with the birth control dispute; whether women
should or should not be provided with birth control coverage. What it all boils
down to, Mrs. Adams concludes, is a moral issue, not a money issue; the money
should not play a factor when it comes to people’s lives. In the Marin
community, Supervisor Adams has actively played a role in finding a solution to
the problem by establishing the Health and Wellness Campus in the Canal lines
(in the San Rafael area). One of the great successes of the Canal lines, Adams
explains, is that it is a place people can go to for healthcare, regardless of
income.
Due to the
beneficial changes that Mrs. Adams has been a part of making in Marin, I asked
her how the Marin community can get involved in promoting wellness, both in the
community aspect and environmental aspect. She was quick to reply that change
“starts with us, the individuals,” which is why it is important to submerge
ourselves in making the world a better place to live. Every little effort can
contribute to a bigger effort. Mrs. Adams named some examples of how we can get
involved, including recycling and taking part in Earth Day, an annual event on
April 22nd to support environmental protection. “We make the changes
in our lives,” Mrs. Adams mused, “and people follow example, not dictates.”
Rather than demanding a person to be a part of the cause, let them watch your
lead and they will follow in suit. We lead by example, and the image we set
forth is what people will perceive us as, so make it a good one. Mrs. Adams
explained the importance of talking about your views and ideas about helping
the community to inspire others to take the same action and not stand by. The
motto “Healthy People Healthy Planet” embodies the domino effect of how our
lives affect the lives of others and the planet and vice versa. If we start
living healthier lives, she explained, it reduces the amount of widespread
diseases and can lead to prevention of such diseases, reducing the vast need
for healthcare. Mrs. Adams lives what she preaches, for example by riding her
bike to work everyday and sometimes opting out of driving her own car to take
the Marin Transit, a form of public transportation. By making small adjustments
to our lives, such as the ones Mrs. Adams has made, she believes that we can
promote wellness in ourselves and in the environment.
-Olivia Poletti
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