Politics & Government

Berkeley Native with Cancer Says we Need to Contain Health Care Costs (VIDEO)

UC Berkeley grad student Kenya Wheeler says we need to bring down the rising cost of medical care.

While the nation battles out the merits of health care reform, UC Berkeley grad student  to get the medical care he needs.

Wheeler now has medical coverage, but when he thought his university coverage would run out, he was trying to keep his medical costs to a minimum. This wasn’t easy.

“You have to basically file an appeal to get an itemized bill,” Wheeler says.

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Largely missing from the debate about so-called “Obamacare” is how to contain the cost of medical care. Wheeler says there are no checks on these inflating fees.

“The system is built to enforce these rising costs. If you’re a patient and you want to [make your care more efficient] you can’t get that information.”

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Regardless of where you stand on the health care debate, Wheeler says, our medical system needs to be revamped.

“Even with the health reform act being heard by our supreme court, that’s just the tip of the iceberg of what types of changes that need to occur.”


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