Roseville Record Feb 13

Posted on Feb 13, 2017
 
 
Roseville Rotarians gathered for our regular Monday meeting and were greeted by a friendly handshake and hugs by Mary Jo McGuire.  President Brad called the meeting to order.  Mary Jo also lead the pledge, Mark Zastrow reminded us of the value of friendship in Rotary as our Invocation leader.    Visitors and guests were introduced by Joan Kallenberg.  
 
Special Announcements
Happy February Birthdays – especially Don Zibell who is “forever young at heart” with his milestone birthday today!
 
Minutes for Membership brought to us by Deb Nygaard who encouraged us to bring guests to meetings; our next one is Feb. 27, 2017.
 
Happy Dollars Abounded!
 
Next Monday no meeting February 20 in honor of President’s Day
 
Mark Zastrow announced Bed Racing for Bridging on March 4, at Buck Hill – a team is forming!
 
 
 
 
 
This week’s program was presented by a panel from “Conversations on Healthcare”  These folks  are part of a diverse group of Minnesotans who are concerned about the excessive costs of US healthcare compared to the rest of the world.  Our first speaker was Dr. Mark Brakke, a family practice physician.  Dr. Brakke presented some sobering statistics.  He quoted Warren Buffet that “Healthcare is the tapeworm of the American economy”   It is 18% of our GDP.  In the rest of the world it is 12% or less.    Also there is an acute shortage of general practice doctors in the US due to the low pay scale compared to the more lucrative specialties. 
 
Our second speaker was Nancy Breymeier, a business owner and financial planner.  She told us of the consequences to business which ranges from employees staying in the wrong job in order to keep getting healthcare to 50% of small business bankruptcies that were due to the high cost of providing healthcare to their employees. 
 
What should concerned citizens do?  Continue to have conversations on healthcare costs and delivery.  Communicate with your state and federal elected officials about the need to reform healthcare for the good of all of us.  We have wonderful hospitals, Doctors and
Professionals and great medical technology but yet our system is broken and we are all suffering from that.
 
Thank you, panel for a great presentation.  You have an interesting story that impacts all of us.