CHESTERFIELD – The pandemic may have created challenges for the Hilltown Medicare for All Advocacy Group, but its members continue to advocate for and educate residents about this proposed health care system.
“We’re trying to educate the public about what it really is,” said Larry Cervelli, who serves as the group’s chairman.
Cervelli, of Chesterfield, is a recently retired health care administrator and, like himself, most members of the group are either current or retired health care professionals.
Medicare for All is a proposed health care system in which everyone would be covered by government insurance, and serves as another name for single payer health care.
“There’s been so much misinformation about Medicare for All,” Cervelli said. “The favorite thing to do is to label it as socialized medicine.”
Cervelli said that while socialized medicine involves health care providers employed by the government and locations owned by the government, Medicare for All would involve the government paying for health care.
“Providers are the providers you choose. Facilities are the facilities you choose,” he said.
Cervelli said that the group was formed about four years ago.
“We started by coming together because we all live here,” he said.
He said that the group began showing the film “Fix It: Healthcare at the Tipping Point,” as part of seminars in the Hilltowns, with one such showing in Chesterfield drawing more than 100 people. After the films, the group holds questions and answers with a panel of experts.
Larry Pareles is a retired cardiologist who has been part of the group since 2017. Although he lives in Northampton, Pareles said he joined the Hilltown group because it is made up of very bright and dedicated people, and he believes in its cause. Pareles has also been a panelist for several of the group’s presentations.
Pareles said that at the end of the talks he’s been a part of, he asks the audience if they favor a Medicare for All system, and almost everyone raises their hand. However, he then asks those on Medicare whether they would go back to private insurance. So far, he says no one has raised their hand for that question.
The pandemic has made it so the group hasn’t been able to put on its seminars. However, it has released a video addressing common questions and has three other videos in the works. Cervelli also said that the pandemic has made people want to know more about health care.
Bera Dunau can be reached at bdunau@gazettenet.com.