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Citizens voice health care concerns
Several people applaud to a question directed to Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., Monday, August 31, 2009, during a healthcare town hall meeting at the Marshall University's Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center.
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HUNTINGTON -- Plans to reform health care generated mostly skeptical comments from an audience of about 200 people during a town hall meeting Monday at Marshall University.
While there were passionate comments made by both sides of the issue, many of the 40 people told Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) during the three-hour meeting that they don't trust the government taking a more active role in health care.
"In light of the federal incompetence with Social Security, Medicare and Cash for Clunkers, why should we turn our health care over to government to tear up and make inefficient?" Huntington resident Coerte Voorhees said. "Our health care is a personal thing."
Rahall repeated several times during the meeting that the plan would not lead to a government takeover or rationing of health care. No one will be forced into a public health care system or any other particular plan, he said.
Rahall said he supports a public option, but isn't tied to the issue so much that its absence from the final version would make him vote against it.
"I'm not going to live or die on that issue," he said.
Huntington resident Linda Carr said Rahall's support of a public option flies in the face of many constituents in his district who oppose it.
"I've heard little of anything about what the private sector could do if it were turned loose," she said. "The government takes so much from us in taxes that if we took it back, we could all probably use it to get the insurance we need."
Though they paled in comparison to those who are leery of reform, supporters spoke passionately about a public option. Citing a comment from a previous speaker that the legislation would destroy the country, Yvonne Jones, executive director of Ebenezer Medical Outreach Center in Huntington, said people would see the issue differently if they worked in her profession.
"Twenty percent of the uninsured in (Rahall's) district don't even have access to health care," Jones said. "We see them go for months without help, then they become deathly ill. It frightens me of what will happen if we don't pass this legislation."
Charles Vance, a physician in Lincoln County, spoke of a former patient who had high cholesterol, chest pains and was a heavy smoker. He convinced the 46-year-old father of three to stop smoking and start eating healthier, but he refused to let Vance send him off for diagnostic testing because of the costs involved.
"He died three months later of a heart attack," Vance said. "He died because he couldn't afford a test. Somewhere along the line, we have to stop and ask ourselves how we can prevent this from happening."
Another topic that kept popping up at the meeting was tort reform. Nurse practitioner Mona Baran said she doesn't think any piece of health care legislation can make significant gains without it. In addition to health care costs skyrocketing because of lawsuits, doctors take a defensive approach to treating patients out of fear that they will be sued, she said.
Rahall said none of the bills being debated now includes tort reform, but the issue has been brought up in conference calls with other members of Congress.
"I do expect it will be in the final version of the bill," he said.
Some of those who said they were skeptical of the health care reforms being debated in Congress agreed that change was needed in certain areas. However, the federal government's track record with wasteful spending and lack of bipartisanship in Congress have convinced them that government intervention is not the answer.
"The Democrats don't have the only good ideas. The Republicans don't have the only good ideas. Let's get together," Huntington resident DeLane Ball told Rahall. "If you take anything back to Washington, it's that there's a clamor in this country against government because of a growing distrust."
Rahall characterized the town hall meeting as "helpful" and "productive." Aside from a few shouting matches, most audience members were respectful, he said.
The distrust with government is disheartening but not surprising, Rahall said. However, that shouldn't stop it from playing a role in health care reform, he said.
"There is a role for government in providing a safety net to those who, through no fault of their own, are unable to help themselves," Rahall said. "But with new transparencies coming online and new technologies, the ability of the American people to see where their money is going will do a better job of eliminating the waste, fraud and abuse that exists out there."
