at the Educational Center for the Arts (55 Audubon St.). (Wessel is a retired pediatrician.) In addition to the kudos, Andrews, 46, will get $2,000 for her project, which she discussed with us in an interview at her office.
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Q: Tell me about your project.
A: It started six years ago. I used to work at the legislature and there was a feeling that there needed to be an independent voice for people who didn't have insurance. If you're uninsured, you're off the radar screen completely and nobody's watching out of you. And it's a lot of people; it's one in nine people in the state. And legislators, to their credit, fully understood that they're paying for them, eventually. They end up in the system in expensive ways that aren't good for them, isn't good for the budget, isn't good for anybody. Nobody really made (the uninsured) their primary focus. We educate policy makers and consumers. We find the best we can in terms of solutions.
Q: Who funds you?
A: Universal Health Care Foundation. We've gotten money from the Connecticut Health Foundation. We've gotten federal money. We've even gotten a little money from the state.
Q: You advocate for people who have a harder time getting health care than anyone else. They're too rich for Medicaid, too poor for private insurance. So, what would be the Ellen Andrews Health Care System that would fix it all?
A: Wow, what a good question. I'm not sure it would be Medicaid for all. It would be comprehensive. It would cover what you need. It would have a medical necessity definition like Medicaid does. Whatever's necessary to maintain or improve your health, that's what we give you. And it would be available to everybody.
Q: How would it be financed?
A: I think it would be financed through taxes, and you wouldn't pay premiums based on your income.
Q: That sounds just like single-payer health care.
A: I guess it is. I just would like more choices for people. If you have asthma you should be able to get into a system of care that is responsive to asthma, with researchers and doctors and caseworkers. You shouldn't have to pick the nearest doc.
Q: But if tax dollars covered all of it, wouldn't everybody have those choices?
A: Sort of like public schools, yeah.
Q: How far off are we from that ideal situation?
A: When I started doing this, I used to say I loved going to Health Care for All meetings because it was the only place I went to that universal health care wasn't the butt of a joke. And now people are talking about it without laughing. I remember sitting down with a very conservative legislator, who started off our conversation telling me about this ‘amazing, transforming conversation' she had with Newt Gingrich. We're sitting in her back yard and she says to me, ‘You're not one of those universal health care wing-nuts, are you?' And I said, ‘Well, yeah I am. But universal health care, everybody gets health care. Do you have a problem with that?' And she's like, ‘Well, no.'
Q: Just curious. What was the gist of her enlightening conversation with Gingrich?
A: She believes we should use the private system more and basically give poor people vouchers from Medicaid. The government shouldn't run a health-insurance program.
Q: And that helps all their corporate buddies.
A: Yeah. And godforbid we should regulate the corporate market.

"Cost. Cost. Cost."

Q: What are the most pressing health-care problems right now in Connecticut?
A: Cost. Cost. Cost. It's around quality of care. Even though we're paying so much, we're not getting what we pay for.
Q: Why do you think it's so damn tough to give everyone equal access to equal quality health care?
A: Special interests. And I don't just mean the HMOs. I mean the hospitals. I mean the doctors.
Q: Doctors?
A: Yup.
Q: Is it because they're afraid they won't make as much money?
A: That, and loss of control. It's very difficult to even find out basic information about your doctor now, like medical error rates. The covering for incompetence is amazing.
Q: What typically happens when someone who's uninsured gets sick?
A: If you have lung cancer, for instance, you're out of luck. There are free bed funds, but you have to get to the point where you need to be an inpatient to access those. There are community health centers where you can get care on a sliding-fee schedule, but they generally don't have an oncologist there. But you shouldn't have to rely on charity to get care when you pay taxes.
Q: Will specialists like oncologists see uninsured patients on a sliding scale?
A: Most doctors do. There are some, though, however, we've heard from consumers, ‘If you don't come up with $500 I can't start work.'
Q: And that's a lot of money for some people?
A: That's impossible for a lot of people.
Q: And then what?
A: Many people don't get treatment. They go without treatment all the time.
Q: What a horrible way to end one's life -- having to make the choice between going without treatment or dishing out your last cents, losing your home, etc., for health care.
Q: These are the calls I get. This is exactly why I do what I do. This is wrong.
Q: In your experience, what is the state's political will in regards to giving people proper medical treatment?
A: Politicians all want to talk about the uninsured. They start ramping up for campaign season next year. And they'll use your sound bites and they'll use statistics. But is there anything good happening?
Q: How often do people without insurance become guinea pigs in order to get care?
A: End up in clinical trials? All the time. As a matter of fact, in many places advocates work hard to get people into clinical trials. If you have a kid with asthma and you don't have insurance, you want him getting medication. And you want him under the care of a doctor. [Clinical trials] are not always a bad thing. It's a trial versus nothing.
Q: It's no secret our health-care system is horribly inequitable. If you're wealthy you're all set. If you're not, you're screwed. I'd have a hard time doing your job under these conditions. Is it hard for you?
A: Yes.
Q: Do you believe there's enough money in this country to pay for everyone's medical needs?
A: Oh, yes. There are entire units at HMOs whose only job is to look at market competition to figure out what the other HMOs are offering and what they're paying. They have the ability to spy on each other, and we're paying premiums for that. And among the top five or six highest-paid professions are health care providers. Do they deserve to make 18 times what a teacher does? It's absurd how much they make. As opposed to nurse's aides who make maybe 10, 12 bucks an hour. And who's more important to your health at 3 o'clock in the morning when you're in a nursing home? There are huge buildings full of people who do just billing to other billing people. It's an incredible waste of money. Those billing people all make a lot of money. Those doctors all make a lot of money and give money to [political] campaigns.