DaytonDailyNews.com

Ohio is a focal point for a broad national coalition's effort to reform American health care by putting chronic disease front and center in the presidential campaigns.

"Everybody's been focusing on the wrong problem," said Kenneth E. Thorpe, the Emory University (Ga.) health economist and Democratic consultant. He's national co-chair, with two former Bush Administration officials, of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease.

Concentrating on the 15 percent of Americans without insurance has always run into an ideological wall, he said, with Democrats trusting government and Republicans trusting for-profit markets.

Health care is one of the voters' top three issues and a prime element of the economic insecurities at the top of their list. "Republicans and Democrats are both eager to do something," Thorpe said.

Chronic diseases spawn 75 percent of the $2.1 trillion a year spent on health care, prompting last week's forecast that it will double in 10 years.

The partnership established one of its first four chapters in Ohio and plans to stay here through November. The growing membership, from employers to labor and doctors to insurers, rallied Tuesday, Feb. 26, at the Democratic presidential debate in Cleveland.

"It's a battleground state," Thorpe said. "We want to be where the candidates are."

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2129 or klamb@DaytonDaily

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