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Town Hall Meetings in our Area
As you know from radio, TV and newspapers,
Congress members throughout the country recently held town
hall meetings to discuss health care issues, many disrupted
by loud demonstrations. Gray Panthers member Margie Metzler
attended the Matsui meeting, two Lungren meetings, and one
McClintock meeting and submitted the following report and
the article from the Bee, October 11:
Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento, greets
Gloria Powell, 78, of Sacramento at her town hall meeting
Saturday at Sutter Middle School. She asked constituents
to be patient with Congress. "This is like the third
quarter of a football game," she said. "We want
to sign at the end of the year so we can begin reform on
January 1. … We are taking the time to do it right."
Unlike noisy town-hall meetings on overhauling
health care that dominated the summer in Northern California,
Saturday's session in Sacramento was more pep rally than
shouting match.
The meeting, hosted by Rep. Doris Matsui,
D-Sacramento, drew about 700 people and only a few boos.
And it drew a pledge from Matsui to stand fast by a controversial
public health insurance option, expanded coverage and medical
care cost-cutting -- the hallmarks of insurance overhaul
demands by left-leaning Democratic Party members in Washington,
D.C.
"I want to make sure no family in Sacramento
risks bankruptcy just because a loved one gets sick,"
Matsui said to cheers. "This bill will ensure that
97 percent of Americans have access to health insurance.
Right now, 100,000 people in this community are uninsured."
It was Matsui's first in-person meeting
with constituents in the health care debate, and it may
be her last. Matsui has been criticized for not having a
meeting earlier, but she said conversations with constituents
now will have greatest impact on reform.
"We are still in the middle of the process, but now
we know the ideas," she said.
She asked constituents to hang tight through the politicking
in Washington -- a process expected to last at least another
couple of months.
"This is like the third quarter of
a football game," she said. "We want to sign at
the end of the year so we can begin reform on January 1.
? We are taking the time to do it right."
At Saturday's Democratic rally in Sacramento, health insurance
companies were vilified.
Dan Monahan, a Sacramento surgeon, said
when he began practicing 22 years ago he naively thought
health insurance companies wanted the best for his patients.
He said he discovered they were less interested in patients'
health than saving money by denying services.
"No other country in the world has
for-profit insurance companies like we do," he said.
One lone man made a fuss and was quelled
by a policewoman. Bill Cooper of Sacramento wore a "Nobama"
T-shirt and held a mini American flag. He said he opposes
a public option because it would not increase competition
among health insurers.
"You're wrong!" he shouted repeatedly,
while other nearby participants rolled their eyes. "You're
just freaking lying!"
Despite the friendly atmosphere, questions
directed at Matsui were diverse. Some participants asked
personal questions, referencing their own experiences with
the health care system. Matsui's audience at Sutter Middle
School was a racially diverse mix of young and old.
Some of Matsui's toughest questioning came
from liberal critics, such as Claire Toomay, a McClatchy
High School teacher, who pointedly asked about the influence
of the health care industry in drafting overhaul legislation.
Matsui's response was uncharacteristically
animated.
Insurance companies don't want a public
option, she said, but she supports it. Pharmaceutical companies
have been reluctant to negotiate Medicare drug prices, but
she wants them to, she said.
"Health care reform may work this time because everyone
is around the table," she said. "In the Clinton
administration, we froze them out."
Toomay said the passion from Matsui was
unexpected. Matsui's town hall was a contrast to forums
hosted by her congressional colleagues this past summer
when feverish debate produced standing-room-only crowds.
Saturday there were no real clashes. There
were no dueling pickets outside the town hall, as there
were at town halls held by Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Gold River.
There was, however, Charles Johnson of
Sacramento, who bemoaned the complexity of the nation's
current health-care system. Enrolled on Medicare Advantage,
he said he feels overwhelmed by the unfamiliar insurance
plan choices and all the acronyms he faces.
"You have to have a lawyer to get insurance,"
he said.
But the one comment that elicited a prolonged
standing ovation was something everybody seemed to understand.
"This debate ends up being about a
moral right," said Gay Jones of Sacramento. "Everybody
needs to make this moral decision-- that everybody is entitled
to health care."
Matsui is on the House Energy and Commerce
Committee, one of three House panels that have drafted health
care overhaul bills. Matsui said her committee's plan is
deficit neutral and that those who are happy with their
private coverage or Medicare would continue to have the
same. For the uninsured, she said, she supports a health
insurance exchange marketplace.
:
Report
on Lungren Town Hall Meetings
Margie Metzler
I went to two of the three Lungren Town Halls
and my friend Arnie Godmintz went to the third.
The first, on August 19, was in Citrus Heights.
I got there about 20 minutes before the event
was to begin, and was too late to get in. I stayed
in the line about an hour, however, talking to
people. There were people with signs and flyers
all around, most objecting to the public option,
and one demonstration, three black guys, held
a sign showing Barack Obama with a Hitler mustache.
I heard later they were with Lyndon Larouche.
The demonstrations were impassioned, but not violent
and I felt no danger. There were a lot of progressives
there too and that was comforting.
I chatted with a guy in front of me, older and
mad in general. He seemed somewhat confused and
I noticed that he was pretty much just spouting
the talking points from Fox. I told him I was
uninsured and asked him what kind of healthcare
he had, and he answered “Medicare”.
I pointed out that is a government program and
asked how he liked it. He loves it. “I just
want the program you have,” I responded.
He continued railing about “government interference,”
no understanding and no irony. I asked him if
he gets his news from Fox, and he said “Yes,
that’s where you hear the truth.”
I said mildly that they don’t in fact tell
the truth and that was that.
I said to the four people behind me, “I
am uninsured and I am scared.” They were
not pro-reform, but were nice people, and asked
me why I was not insured. I said that I had been
laid off from a good job three years ago and that
it is not easy for a woman in her 60’s to
find a job, especially in this economy, and that
I was now working three part-time jobs, including
adjunct teacher in a local college, but these
are all jobs that don’t provide benefits.
I think people ask why I’m uninsured because
they want to prove I am a bum, i.e. not a worthwhile
person, and also to prove to themselves that this
couldn’t happen to them. They are always
quiet when I tell them my story, probably because
it does indeed occur to them that bad things can
happen to good people and in fact they are in
danger too.
The woman with the group spoke up. “These
three guys work for me, and I can barely afford
their insurance. If my taxes get raised I won’t
be able to afford it any more.” I sympathized
but than said “Have your costs to insure
them gone up every year?” and she said yes.
I asked “Well, if nothing changes, won’t
these increasing costs force you to cut off their
insurance anyway?” She said yes, and one
of the guys said I had given him something to
think about.
I also went to the Town Hall on Aug. 26 in Rancho
Cordova. To me, that one was much more depressing.
The group was orderly. There were people with
signs, but no yelling that I saw. I was behind
a man in his 80’s, who had a sign that said
No government programs, Government stay out of
my healthcare, keep the constitution, no more
taxes, and No to socializm (sic.) I tapped him
on the shoulder and noted that he had spelled
socialism incorrectly, told him I was uninsured
myself, at 64, and then asked what healthcare
he had. He answered “Medicare and Tricare.”
I said that those were the best and he was most
fortunate, but did he realize that those were
both “Government programs.” He seemed
surprised and said “that’s different.”
I added that I just want the same for myself.
Inside the building, there were two large rooms
so most of us were seated. Lungren was in the
other room, but there was a large screen so we
could see him. There were staffers with microphones
in both rooms and with the group outside as well,
and they took questions from all three places.
The questions were mostly friendly and led to
Lungren’s responses such as Protect Medicare
and don’t let Democrats take away from seniors,
which I found shocking, “Keep government
from getting between seniors and their doctors,
No rationing based on age, and prevent government
from interfering with end-of-life care discussions;
Ensure that everyone one can keep what coverage
they have, and protect veterans.”
There were several questions I thought were genuine:
First a woman told Mr. Lungren that she and her
husband had insurance, but their 6 year old child
recently was diagnosed with an eye condition which
required surgery, and they had just found out
that their share of the expense would be over
$8000 (I would guess that they have an HSA, which
appears to be Mr. Lungren’s idea of reform.
He mentioned Health Savings Accounts several times
but never described them.) She asked plaintively,
“What is there we can do? We have to take
care of our baby.” I expected Lungren to
offer to meet with her, but he didn’t. He
suggested she look into local “charities”,
and suggested that they try the Shriner’s
Hospital. I was genuinely shocked.
I was allowed to ask a question after someone
railed against the “loss of liberties”
healthcare reform would cause. I said that “there
is always a tension in every democracy between
the individual liberties of citizens and the best
interests of society as a whole. I am uninsured,
and shortly after I first heard of the Swine Flu,
I developed flu-like symptoms and did not see
a doctor. But,” I asked, “in a country
where fully 20% of the citizens under 65 are uninsured
and unlikely to see a doctor except when they're
seriously ill, how can we expect to track or contain
pandemics such as Swine Flu?” Lungren started
by defending the CDC (which of course I hadn’t
attacked), and then said he “questioned
my statistics”, and then he stopped suddenly,
paused, admitted he had completely lost his train
of thought and asked for another question. (I
turned to the woman nest to me, a single-payer
proponent, and whispered gleefully that “My
question brought the man to his knees.”)
On the way home I was agitated and depressed.
I really was angry at Lungren: for being mean-spirited,
unfeeling, partisan, and dishonest. It was clear
that he uses his Town Halls to spread Conservative
orthodoxy, but that he gets very rattled when
the questions go in other directions. I was also
angry at those nice, suburban people who love
him and trust him. When I got to the computer
I Googled some of the expressions he had used
repeatedly, and was directed to the Fox News website,
and from there, to the Republican National Committee
website, Seniors Health Care Bill of Rights (http://www.gop.com/news/NewsRead.aspx?GUID=bc1d50c0-5ef7-4026-8db5-efd402b01677
). I have reprinted this document below with my
comments in red.
The Enemies of healthcare
reform are cynically, carefully and in lock step
going after seniors. Their goal is to get them
to vote and act against the Obama administration…
in spite of the fact that they would be voting
against their own self-interests.
Note: This is clearly
the fight on our hands right now. We in Gray Panthers
are committed to educating legislators of both
parties and at both the state and Federal level
about health care issues.
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