NOLA has this article covering Mary Landrieu's town hall in Reserve, La. this afternoon. If Reserve, La. sounds familiar it might be because of the meeting a few weeks back when Kathleen Sebelius and company came to town in support of Obamacare much to the chagrin and disapproval of locals.Landrieu's meeting went only slightly better than the Sebelius meeting. According to NOLA it was standing room only; there were 400 chairs put out and folks were standing around the periphery of the meeting room at the Louisiana National Guard Readiness Center.
Bill Barrow, writing for NOLA, says that "most of the questions were overwhelmingly in opposition to the general concept of 'Obamacare,' a pejorative label put on House Democratic plans for a health insurance overhaul." Pejorative? Really? Biased, much?
Suggesting that many of the opposing voices were imported, Barrow says, "There appeared to be political operatives or activists from varying interests carrying video cameras, meaning some of the most heated exchanges could be circulating shortly online, as have key moments from health care town halls around the country."
When he gets around to reporting on the content of the meeting, Barrow has a sort of live-blogging thing going on which is interesting to follow.
From his 2:15 installment: Landrieu tells the crowd - "When you say, 'This is my health care system,' you might be familiar with the one you have, but you may not be familiar with what others have."
At 2:25: The first question is from a man wondering why "illegal aliens" would be covered under the Congressional plan. "They don't belong here and I'm paying for them." Landrieu said, "I'm not sure what bill you're referring to." That prompted chants of "Read the Bill"
From the 3:40 installment: A back-and-forth ensued between Landrieu and one man. He punctuated lengthy remarks with, "People should take care of themselves. ... Government is not responsible." Landrieu answered: "He is entitled to his opinion. It's not a majority opinion." The man added, "We've set up a system where everybody thinks they are entitled to everything." He also said he does not believe that "all people are equal."
Barrow concludes his coverage by repeating the meme that illegals won't be covered: "As for lingering misconceptions about the various proposals -- such as the incorrect assertion that any of the bills would offer public insurance to people who are in the United States illegally -- Landrieu said the solution is 'more sessions like this.'"
Once again, while the bills don't specifically mandate coverage for illegals, there is nothing whatsoever in any of them to preclude their obtaining coverage through a public option. In fact, use of the already existing technology to verify immigration status was voted down. See here and here.
As of this posting there are two You Tube videos of the meeting - one is just folks chanting "Kill theBill" and the other has such poor sound quality I didn't link it. Should anything else show up, I'll add it here. But lacking that, Barrow's article gives you a play by play, (along with his commentary and perspective) of the meeting. Click the link to read the whole thing.
3 comments:
You know the common occurrence I gather from these reports of town hall meetings is that the citizens seem to be more well versed in what the bill conveys more so than the representatives who are supposed to be there to address concerns. The reps sit there with deer-in-headlights looks on their mugs and then high comedy ensues. Our system is already taking care of illegals as it is now. No one who needs care can be turned away. But people need to read the bill. Especially the people responsible for signing it into law.
Remember this, I have been in medicine for over 30 years and know that the reason that the cost is up and that we have problems is because of the government interference that began in the mid 80's. Thus, if there is a problem with medicine, look no further than Washington. If they got out, the problems would resolve. If medicare and medicaid paid their bills, then the cost would go down.
Right on David.
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