Fort Smith Employers Share Health Care concerns with Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee
Two Fort Smith based employers met with Presidential Candidate Mike Huckabee at the recent National Business Coalition on Health’s Annual Conference held in Scottsdale Arizona this week. Mike Evans from Riverside Furniture and Bob Dornblaser from OK Foods as well as Tom Hare from Triumph Fabrications of Hot Springs, spent approximately 45 minutes in a private session with Mr. Huckabee. Caryol Hendricks, the Executive Director of the Fort Smith based Employers’ Health Coalition also participated in the session. Hendricks stated, “ the session gave us an opportunity to share both our experiences and insight regarding the healthcare situation in our state with the Republican Presidential candidate and former Governor of Arkansas.” Dornblaser was impressed with Huckabee’s knowledge of the current state of healthcare in America. “ We discussed value based purchasing of healthcare and our concerns regarding government run healthcare.” Evans agreed and felt that the Governor had the right message for his audience. “It was reassuring to hear that Mr. Huckabee understands that the healthcare delivery system is broken and must be redesigned”.
Huckabee gave the keynote address and Hendricks was a speaker and facilitator at the conference. This year the program featured real-life examples from employers, business, health coalitions, health plans and communities that are striving to purchase high quality, more affordable and more efficient healthcare services.