About Balanced Choice
Balanced
Choice Health Care was created as a natural extension of the Patient
Advocacy Coalition, Inc. (PAC), which was established in 1996 as a consumer
advocacy organization. The PAC originally 
operated
a helpline that assisted consumers who had problems accessing health
care insurance and difficulties obtaining necessary treatment in managed
care plans. In 2003, it changed its name to Colorado Patient Advocates.
As the health care system has deteriorated, it has become apparent that
more than patient advocacy is needed to solve the problems in health
care; the health care systems need an overhaul. Consequently, the Colorado
Patient Advocates voted in 2003 to focus on developing and disseminating
information about Balanced Choice, and in 2006 changed its name to Balanced
Choice Health Care, Inc.
Mission Statement, Balanced
Choice, 1/15/07
Balanced Choice Health Care, Inc. develops ideas for and educates
the public about health care financing proposals that provide quality
universal coverage, are fiscally responsible, and are advantageous to
consumers, providers and employers.
Balanced
Choice Health Care, Inc. - Executive Group
Ivan Miller, Ph.D., Chair
350 Broadway, Suite 210
Boulder, Colorado 80305
IvanJM@aol.com
Dr. Miller is a psychologist with a background in public mental health,
administration, private practice, and business ownership. As an advocate
for mental health services and as a consumer advocate, he has served
as the Executive Director of the National Coalition of Mental Health
Professionals and Consumers, Inc., and as the Chair of the Board of
Directors of the Patient Advocacy Coalition. Dr. Miller also served
as a Board Member of the Colorado Psychological Association and of the
Division of Independent Practice, American Psychological Association.
"Out of a conviction that there must be a better way to design
the U.S. health care system, I worked on developing the “better
design” since 1994. After many revisions, in 2006 I published
Balanced Choice: A Common Sense Cure for the U.S. Health Care Systems."
Since publication, Miller has been working to spread the Balanced Choice
ideas and develop support for health care reform based on these ideas.
Kathy
Volker, Vice-Chair
4833 East Links Circle
Centennial, CO 80122
(303)694-2855.
kvolk139@msn.com
Ms Volker has an undergraduate degree in economics, a master's degree
in health administration, and an advanced certificate in healthcare
ethics. Although not currently actively employed in the health field,
she has worked as a grant writer, patient advocate and hospital administrator.
As a patient advocate, she answered questions about managed care, helped
clients to resolve issues with their insurance plan, and assisted with
the appeals process when necessary. There were circumstances in which
patients were denied coverage for treatment and the denials were not
necessarily based upon logic or reason or even good sense.
"My experiences as a patient advocate as well as my own personal
experience as a healthcare consumer have contributed to my strong belief
that the current system of financing healthcare needs to change. I do
have private insurance, but it is an individual policy with very high
deductibles. I am very aware that I am fortunate in that I have no pre-existing
conditions which would significantly limit my ability to obtain insurance
at anything resembling a reasonable cost. I believe that our system
is not in need of more money, but very much needs to reorganize the
way in which system funds are currently expended. Balanced Choice Healthcare
provides a workable option for system reform which would benefit all
participating parties: consumers, providers, and employers (the vehicle
through which most health insurance is provided). As a win-win solution,
I choose to actively support Balanced Choice Healthcare."
Lyn Gullette, Ph.D.
575 W. Mulberry St.
Louisville, CO 80027
(720) 890-0145
Lgullette@aol.com
Dr. Gullette is a clinical psychologist with a private practice in Louisville,
Colorado. Previously as a public school teacher and a psychologist working
in agencies--mental health; alcohol recovery; domestic violence; in
a psychiatric hospital and in schools. She has worked and lived in rural
Colorado, in an industrial city in Colorado, and in Boulder. "I've
seen health care coverage problems from many angles, and consider it
a privilege to participate in the problem-solving process.
"I am recently active as a health care reformer. Although I've
been aware of problems associated with health care access, affordability
and inequity for many years, I thought the problems were too political
or too complicated for me to become involved. I had other contributions
to make. But I knew Ivan. His Balanced Choice is a practical approach.
It's not political. And although it requires us to think of comprehensive
change rather than merely spending money on pretend fixes, it's really
not very complicated."
Bill
Semple, LCSW
2030 Floral Dr.
Boulder, CO 80304
(720) 936-5901
bluehouse1800@yahoo.com
Mr. Semple has been in a Catholic seminary, in the Peace Corps, a Rolf
practitioner, and for many years a clinical social worker. He worked
for many years as a therapist in community mental health, "till
budget cuts and bureaucratic demands drove me out. This experience engraved
on me the value of a needed health service being available to all in
a community, as well as the loss when it’s gravely curtailed.
I now have a private practice of psychotherapy and have the travails
of a provider involved in the intricacies of health insurance reimbursements,
a for-profit system that succeeds in avoiding risk and snarling payments
to providers. Also, while employed, I was mostly pleased with the Kaiser
practitioners I saw for many years through a group plan; on being self
employed, though a reasonably healthy 60 year old, they denied me their
advertised rates and will only offer a very expensive, low benefit policy;
and they don’t have to say why.
"We hear many speaking for health care reform today. Most reforms
leave in place the 1,000 plus insurance companies with their 17,000
benefit options. This will not be affordable and sustainable, but just
whistling in the wind. The Balanced Choice plan offers an efficient,
effective way to insure all of us in this country, and has the cost
awareness and freedom of choice that can make it work. It’s worth
the fight."
Tom
Parsons, M.A., L.P.C., LCSW
2430 Rim Drive
Broomfield CO 80020
tparsons1000@aol.com
(303) 465-2930
Tom Parsons, M.A., L.P.C., retired psychotherapist, has remained active
in the politics of public health care policy. Prior to his 20+ years
in private practice in the Boulder region he was on clinical staff in
experimental in-patient treatment programs for chronic methamphetamine,
heroin, and alcohol abusers with the California Department of Mental
Hygiene, and was the architect and administrator of a successful residential
treatment program for adolescent females. Parsons says, “I want
to see a future day when quality health care is universally available,
and a return to the day when those making a reasonable profit in health
care are the ones who actually deliver the care.”
Balanced
Choice Health Care, Inc. - State Contacts
CALIFORNIA
William L. Wallace, Ph.D.
1448 15th Street, Suite 203
Santa Monica, CA 90404
(310) 451-2107
williamlwallace@attglobal.net
I am a Clinical Psychologist in private practice in Santa Monica, CA.
I am also active in both the LA County and California State Psychological
Associations in advocating for full access to health care including
parity for mental health treatment. In 2002-03 I served a year in Washington,
DC, as an American Psychological Association Health Policy Fellow working
in SAMHSA on the structure and financing of mental health services throughout
the United States.
In California, as well as the rest of the Country, healthcare reform
is high on the agenda. Senator Sheila Kuehl has introduced legislation
proposing a Single Payer Plan for California. I believe that Balanced
Choice would be a very effective extension of her plan that would also
incorporate meaningful market forces into the health cost equation.
None of the current plans being proposed contain provision for the "cost
consciousness" that Balanced Choice provides and still makes healthcare
accessible to everyone.
COLORADO|
Ivan Miller, Ph.D, Executive Director
350 Broadway, Suite 210
Boulder, Colorado 80305
ivanJM@aol.com
Lyn Gullette
575 W. Mulberry St.
Louisville, CO 80027
(720) 890-0145
lgullette@aol.com
Kathy Volker
4833 East Links Circle
Centennial, CO 80122
(303) 694-2855
kvolk139@msn.com
Bill Semple, LCSW
2030
Floral Dr.
Boulder, CO 80304
(720) 936-5901
bluehouse1800@yahoo.com
Tom
Parsons
2430 Rim Drive
Broomfield CO 80020
tparsons1000@aol.com
(303) 465-2930
HAWAII
Stephen Kemble, MD
600 Kapiolani Blvd - Suite 402
Honolulu, HI 96813
(808) 537-2665
sbKemble@hawaii.rr.com
I am a past president of the Hawaii Psychiatric Medical Association,
and am also on the board of Mountain Pacific Quality Health, a physician
directed organization whose core business is quality improvement projects
for Medicare, covering Hawaii, Montana, Wyoming, and Alaska. The board
has 6-7 physicians from each member state, most of who are active in
organized medicine and many of whom are past presidents of their state
medical societies. The board also included the CEO's of the State Hospital
Associations for all 4 States, the CEO's of the State Medical Associations,
and a consumer rep from each State, some of whom are active with AARP.
I did a presentation on Balanced Choice for them in January 2007, which
was well received.
I consider spreading the word on Balanced Choice to be my extracurricular
project for the next few years. I first heard about Balanced Choice
from Physicians for a National Health Plan. I am on the PNHP e-mail
list, and Balanced Choice was mentioned in passing as an interesting
proposal in their newsletter in October 2006.
For years, I have been going surfing on Sunday mornings with a group
including several other physicians, an architect and my brother, who
is a museum exhibit designer. After surfing we have coffee and one of
the major topics we have discussed over the years is health care financing.
We ended up agreeing we need a base plan which works like single payer,
and an option for "concierge care" for those who want and
can afford extra services. When I heard about Balanced Choice, it sounded
like exactly the kind of thing we had been talking about, but with a
lot more of the details worked out. An internist in the group is enthusiastic
about the idea, and he has already started his own version in his practice,
devoting 3 afternoons a week to patients who have signed on to his "Choice
Care" plan which offers clearly defined extra services, not covered
by Medicare or other insurance, for a monthly subscription fee. He has
about 10 patients who have signed on so far, and more who have expressed
interest.
MAINE
Keith Cook, Ed.D.
28 Greenwood St.
Waterville, ME 04901
(207) 873-2567
kmcook@midmaine.com
I am a licensed psychologist with a private practice of psychotherapy,
consulting, and training. I am not on any HMO or managed care panels
because I have witnessed their harm to clients and their disruption
of therapy. I have a cash practice and provide clients with a reduced
fee and documentation they can submit for insurance reimbursement.
In an earlier life I served as a teacher, coach and guidance counselor.
Subsequently, I was a staff psychologist at university counseling centers
at SUNY/Albany and the University of Maine. In the great days of federal
funding for mental health, I was part of a consultation and education
team at a community mental health center doing prevention work in the
community. Recently, after 25 years of private practice, I completed
a two year sabbatical as a superintendent of schools in a rural district
of eight small towns which proved to be a wonderful opportunity to verify
in vivo how you set it up so people bring the best of themselves to
work every day. I also faced the budget constraints of escalating health
insurance premiums from an employer’s perspective.
These foregoing experiences along with HMO’s increasing intrusions
into privacy, denial of care, driving down reimbursements while escalating
CEO’s salaries, and duplicitously operating for corporate profit
while proclaiming patient care, have only strengthened my resolve to
work for better ways to fund healthcare. When I heard about Ivan’s
creative and ingenious work with Balanced Choice and read the book,
I was immediately encouraged and enthused. Balanced Choice is a right-minded
plan that puts patients first (not profits), allows professionals to
practice as professionals, and reduces and stabilizes employers’
costs. It just could work!
MICHIGAN
Kenneth L. Salzman, Ph.D.
4435 W Saginaw, Suite 202
Lansing, MI 48917
(517) 614-5680
CallKen-DrSalzman@usa.net
I come to Balanced Choice out of a long-standing respect for Ivan's
work, and a serious concern about the state of US health care. I have
been in clinical practice for three decades now, and have also served
over 100 other therapists by operating a billing service for them. I
have been concerned about health care issues for decades, and have contended
with managed care for nearly as long. My interests are widely diverse
and include computers, magic, Aikido and Tai Chi.
I am hoping to introduce Balanced Choice to the State of Michigan, a
state that has been badly hammered by mismanagement, bad economics and
some poor luck. A health plan that provides comfort to all citizens
and also appeals to those who value a market-based system could provide
a
serious solution to many problems at once in this state.
NORTH CAROLINA
Mary Kilburn, Ph.D.
4016 Barrett Drive, # 104
Raleigh, North Carolina 27609
(919) 781-5162
mbkilburn@earthlink.net
I am a second-career psychologist, first career having been as homemaker,
wife, mother and community activist/volunteer. Went to graduate school
when children went to school. Thereafter, in succession, (1) taught
psychology at local college, (2) worked with state agencies serving
(a) developmentally disabled and their families and then (b) welfare
recipients before (3) entering Independent Practice of Psychodynamic
Psychology in 1980. Active service in local state and national civic
and professional organizations has merited numerous awards and recognitions.
Most recent efforts have been directed primarily toward preserving mental
health treatment as part of health care policy.
My father, who was in the insurance industry, inculcated me with an
understanding of the appropriate role of insurance, i.e. to spread the
risk evenly among everyone [all contribute equally] and be there for
the use of those who were unfortunate enough to need it. For him, it
was a "calling." When I saw how managed care was using this
vehicle, conceived for the public good, to enrich the pockets of the
greedy by denying care, I started looking for alternatives. Single Payer
bypasses the strengths of the American Economic Experience; Balanced
Choice - a uniquely American approach - provides an equitable place
for varying methods and motivations. I think it could work.
WISCONSIN
Gordon I. Herz, PhD
Forward Psychology Group, LLC
478 Commerce Dr, Ste 204
Madison, WI 53719
(608) 833-7533
Gordon@DrHerz.us
Board
of Directors
Chair—Ivan
J. Miller
Vice-Chair—Kathy Volker
Secretary—Lyn C. Gullette
Treasurer—Jed
Shapiro
Board Members
Evi Bassoff
Julie Phillips
Wayne Phillips
Jed Shapiro
Executive
Director—Ivan J. Miller
Balanced Choice Health Care, Inc.
350 Broadway, Suite 210
Boulder, Colorado 80305
www.BalancedChoiceHealthCare.org
