Advocate now tackles health care

Longtime Utah consumer advocate Roger Ball has changed sparring partners from Utah's big utility companies to the health insurance companies and care providers who control access to medical care.

But his constituency hasn't really changed, he says. It's still the little guy, too often voiceless.

Ball, a native of Cornwall, England, is best known for his eight-year stint as executive director of the Committee of Consumer Services, where he was described as either a "maverick" or a "pit bull," depending on whether the speaker was an admirer.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. fired him a year ago, amid protests from consumer groups and individuals. He's still active in utility issues as a private citizen, Ball says.

Ball has just been named president of the Utah Healthcare Coalition, established last fall by large and small businesses and individuals to provide input to the Privately Owned Health Care Organization Task Force, which was created by the 2005 Legislature to look at the health-care system in Utah. Some refer to it as the Intermountain Healthcare task force, since Intermountain, better known as IHC, is a powerhouse in Utah health care as both an insurer and a care provider and has been the subject of much of the task force discussion.

Ball is just getting to know members of the coalition. But he knows the issues that need to be addressed: the sheer confusion created by the health-care system and health insurance industry, and the high cost of accessing care.

"The fundamental concerns of the coalition are to try and make health insurance and health-care provision less confusing and less costly for consumers," he says, adding consumer concerns have somehow been lost in the complexities of a system that is designed for and powered by health-care providers and insurers.

Ball believes his previous work as an advocate for utility company consumers is a surprisingly good fit for this assignment, because when dealing with the health-care system and insurance industry or working with utility companies, the consumer's needs can be lost to the lure of a better bottom line.

And both are also areas where the "omnipresence of lobbyists" with their need to get "ear time" from lawmakers to influence decisions has an impact. John Q. Public is typically outgunned when it comes to competing with lobbyists, Ball says. And expecting a lobbyist to give more than one side of the story would be like expecting a district attorney to look after the needs of a defendant, he notes.