                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Thursday, July 21, 1994                TAG: 9407210541
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: RALEIGH                            LENGTH: Medium:   90 lines

STATE PANEL HEARS HEALTH INSURANCE WOES MANY NORTHEASTERN N.C. RESIDENTS ARE WITHOUT COVERAGE.

Four-year-old Brittany Washington of Hollister, a small community in Halifax County, was born prematurely and has asthma and frequent ear infections, according to her mother, Vanetta.

In October 1992, Brittany's father, who was separated from her mother, dropped Brittany from his health insurance plan through the military. Her mother, who works for the Twin County Rural Health Center, hasn't been able to get insurance for her daughter since then.

Brittany is one of about 25,000 people across North Carolina who have been turned down for insurance by the state's private insurance carriers and is, therefore, considered medically uninsurable. She is also one of an estimated 65,724 people in northeastern North Carolina without insurance.

Vanetta Washington pays her daughter's medical expenses, an estimated $600 per month, out of her own pocket.

``This creates an impossible situation,'' Washington told the N.C. Health Planning Commission on Wednesday. ``And I don't think this treatment is fair.''

A higher percentage of northeastern North Carolina residents are without adequate health insurance and have fewer doctors per capita than almost any other area of the state, making the region a prime candidate for health care reform, a variety of health care experts told the commission.

Meanwhile, in interviews after the meeting, legislative leaders who are also members of the commission said that health care reform will likely be one of the top priorities of the state legislature when it reconvenes in January.

Health care will be ``a very important component of the next session,'' said House Speaker Daniel T. Blue, D-Wake. ``Once you bring all of this firepower to the table. . .we ought to be able to reach a consensus.''

``If we can't, I'm going to lose my faith in people's ability to solve problems.''

Sen. Beverly Perdue, D-Craven, said the General Assembly has already taken some steps toward reforming the health care system - such as authorizing small businesses to form health care alliances to buy health insurance.

``The process will be deliberate and slow, but I believe the state is moving in the right direction,'' she said. ``A lot, quite frankly, depends on what the Congress decides to do.''

Of the state's 100 counties, Burke County has the lowest percent, 10.5, of residents who are without health insurance while Camden County, with 24.2 percent of its residents without health insurance, has the highest, according to figures released Wednesday from the Center for Health Policy Research and Education at Duke University.

``There is a twofold difference in the risk (of being uninsured), depending on where you live in the state,'' said Chris Conover of the Duke center.

And people who are uninsured end up using 30 to 50 percent fewer services and are less likely to receive preventive care than people with insurance, Conover said.

``About one-ninth of the population in this state on any given day is naked from an insurance point of view,'' said Rep. Joe Mavretic, D-Edgecombe. ``They are getting care but it's limited, it's real late, it's extraordinarily expensive and other folks are paying for it.''

The N.C. Health Planning Commission is a 16-member panel, comprised of Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. and some of the state's highest ranking lawmakers, that created by the General Assembly in 1993 to develop a health care program to provide all North Carolinians with access to health care. The commission is scheduled to present a comprehensive health care bill to the General Assembly in 1995.

Of the uninsured residents in North Carolina about 77 percent are either full-time or part-time workers and their families, most of whom either lost their insurance when they switched jobs or work for an employer who dropped their health insurance, Conover said.

But even though the highest percentages of uninsured residents are found in northeastern North Carolina counties, the problem of finding health insurance affects residents statewide. ILLUSTRATION: Chart

ESTIMATES OF UNINSURED IN NORTHEAST N.C.

Source: Duke University, Center for Health Policy Research and

Education

For copy of chart, see microfilm