Health care forum draws hundreds, mostly opposed to federal reform legislation
By Caitlin Hartsell
Show-Me Institute
 Though the majority of people who attended the forum indicated their opposition to recently proposed health care legislation, at least 25 people showed up in support of it, as well as other causes. |
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Hundreds of people packed a health care forum moderated by Sen. Claire McCaskill’s Saint Louis regional director, Michelle Sherod, on Monday at Forest Park Community College. The crowd was so large that, minutes before the forum began, organizers moved the crowd into the student cafeteria from its original meeting place upstairs.
The forum had been requested by Americans for Prosperity, a group with a stated mission to promote and advocate limited government and free-market policy. The group led a protest of pending federal health care legislation at McCaskill’s Saint Louis office on July 17.
Though the vast majority of people attending the forum indicated their opposition to the proposed legislation, at least 25 people showed up holding signs that displayed slogans like, “Working people want quality, affordable, health care now!” and “Missouri health care for all.” Health care reform wasn’t the only issue on display, either; a number of attendees held signs that said, “Make our energy clean. Make it American.”
Sherod began the meeting by listing McCaskill’s opinions on the issue. She said McCaskill believes that health care is in “dire need of reform.” Furthermore, Sherod told the crowd, McCaskill thinks that a public option is needed to compete with private insurance — a statement that was met with loud booing from the audience, some of whom held “Where’s Claire?” signs.
A long line of people waited to ask questions and make comments, which they were told would be relayed to the senator. Within the first hour, 22 people presented a variety of reasons why they opposed the bill.
The first person to speak, John Bubb, asked, “Why the rush to push this through?” He said that the senator should give the people three months to properly critique the bill. He also claimed that the nation’s health care situation is not a failure of a competitive market — because so much of the health care system is already regulated by the government.
Others couched their observations within personal stories. One woman spoke of her “million dollar babies” — her twins, who were born prematurely and were not expected to survive. She credited her great private insurance for saving her daughters’ lives.
The man who followed her, an unidentified college student with a cochlear implant, asked whether people who are disabled would be denied treatment under a public option. He echoed the New York Post’s characterization of comments made in a 1996 Hastings Center Report by Ezekiel Emanuel, one of Obama’s top health care advisers, as advocating that health care should be reserved for the “non-disabled.”
Those at the forum who supported current government health care reform, voiced an objection to the increasing cost of health care in the current system. One man, who said he owns a small business, welcomed the idea of the public option, saying that his insurance premiums had risen 34 percent during the last two years and that he could not afford to cover his employees.
Many of the questioners took issue with the fact that few senators were actually reading the proposed legislation. Three of the questioners separately said that they had read the health care reform bill, and each had a different portion to critique.
Jim Durbin, a small business owner in Chesterfield and author of the blog 24th State, said that the bill is “designed to destroy the private health care industry.” He said that if the government began to regulate premiums and benefits with a heavy hand, there would be no real variety among options.
Joyce Cooper, the second person to announce that she had read the entire bill, pointed out that section 155 of the bill stipulates that even if a portion of the bill were ultimately found to be unconstitutional, all other provisions would continue to stand. A few others took issue with the constitutionality of the reform, including a former veteran who said he was looking for an apology from the senator because he claimed she had broken her oath to uphold the Constitution.
Fran Adams, who had also read the bill, pointed to a portion on page 425 that said there would be advanced care planning consultation and orders for end-of-life care, essentially deciding when people would die. She also alluded to political posturing within the bill, claiming that section 164 enumerates a retirement plan for families of labor unions and community organizers.
Some comments were more dramatic. One man, who identified himself as Jim Dale of Valley Park, posed the question, “At what point does the government say to me that it is your patriotic duty to die?”
Caitlin Hartsell, a student at Washington University, is an intern at the Show-Me Institute.
July 29th, 2009 at 7:12 am
Why is it that, when the vast majority were opposed to this health care nightmare, the single picture you show was one of the handful that supported it?
July 29th, 2009 at 7:29 am
Great article! Citizens like these are what makes our country great.
July 29th, 2009 at 7:35 am
What health care nightmare? The vast majority of Americans enjoy great insurance. for what it covers my premiums are very reasonable. Yeah…wish they were less but they are where they are not because the doctors and nurses are making too much money. The problem with health care is that it is too tied in with your employment and current insurance is too wedded to fee for service.
1) Divorce health benefits from employment. I’d love to get the money in salary and then a tax credit for the insurance I buy on my own.
2) Make private insurance a competitive market. The so-called public option would not compete with private insurance.Private insurance is not competitive. It’s regulated to death by the individual states. Free it up so we can get some real innovation and competition.
3) Tort reform – Want to eliminate the costs of too much testing and over prescription of services? you have to have some kind of reform of the tort system and the reduction of malpractice insurance. Otherwise you aren’t serious about reform.
July 29th, 2009 at 11:49 am
This is a great article. Very informative. Keep them comming.
July 29th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Why wasn’t the number of attendees against given a numerical estimate? Why were the pro-totalitarian attendees’ signs quoted and the other signs not? Why wasn’t there any attempt to ientify the associations of the attendees? I suspect the 25 or so speaking for Obama’s agenda had (paid) links to Acorn, while many of the opponents are part of the grassroots TEA Party effort.
Some good facts here, but still a fair amount of bias.
July 29th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
AClay1-
The number of attendees against was in the hundreds. The number of attendees for was countable. That was how it was presented in the article. I had other pictures of the signs, but they weren’t as clear as the one we posted. (There is another picture on the home page that shows the attendance as well.) An article should present both sides as well as possible. I quoted (significantly) the people who were against it within the text, and I quoted the signs of the people for it.
I find it funny that you think I am biased for nationalized health care; perhaps you should read some of my blog posts on showmedaily.org, where I present my opinion. Thanks for your comment.
August 11th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
[...] no posters or banners were allowed, a change from the health care forum hosted earlier by McCaskill’s regional director, Michelle Sherod. At one point, a woman was forcibly removed from the forum for unfurling a [...]
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