A polite but passionate town hall crowd has its share of reform critics
By Bill Salisbury
bsalisbury@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 08/31/2009
In sharp contrast to the angry protesters disrupting meetings elsewhere across the land, the people who got into U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum's forum on health reform Monday night in St. Paul kept their cool.
McCollum's 90-minute public meeting at Macalester College was a civil affair. Audience members asked their questions and stated their positions politely and often passionately, but there was no shouting or disruption.
Based on the signs they carried, the crowd packing the Weyerhaeuser Chapel appeared to overwhelmingly support President Barack Obama's health care overhaul plan. An overflow crowd that McCollum's staff estimated at nearly 400 listened to the forum from speakers on the chapel lawn.
While it was largely a friendly crowd, the five-term Democratic congresswoman from St. Paul got an earful from opponents of the Democratic health bills now pending in Congress and from proponents who argued lawmakers aren't going far enough to change the system.
Critics included Democrats and political independents.
A woman who identified herself as Susan from Mendota Heights said she has been an active Democrat, but she opposed the bill because of the enormous debt the nation would incur to pay for it.
"I'm an independent, and I detest this bill," said Bob, of St. Paul, who warned it would add trillions to the national debt.
"We're in an economic crisis," he said. "We need to get our country solvent first."
McCollum didn't address the debt issue directly, but in her opening remarks, she said, "We need to pay for reforms with efficiencies, expanded preventive care that saves money and cutting excessive profits out of the system, not more deficit spending."
Most critics zeroed in on the dangers of government taking control of health care.
"This bill is more government, more cost and less choice," said Todd, a small-business owner from St. Paul. He urged McCollum to change direction and give consumers more freedom to choose their own health insurance.
Joe, who called himself a "loyal, conservative Republican" from White Bear Lake, warned that while corporations providing health care can't take your property, liberty or money, government can.
Small-business owner Dave, of Oakdale, asserted every individual should be responsible for purchasing his or her own insurance.
"This government involvement is driving me wild," he said.
McCollum didn't respond to each anti-government statement, but at the start of the meeting she argued the U.S. health system is broken when 60 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured, when the system costs twice as much per person as any other country but ranks 37th in results and when insurance companies are canceling coverage and "dumping the sick."
She supports a government-run insurance program, called the "public option," that she said would increase competition in the marketplace, hold down premium costs and make insurance affordable for all Americans.
Bonnie said she read the Democratic bill moving through the House and said it "made it look like I couldn't keep my health insurance ... that I'd have to take the public option."
That's not true, McCollum said. The bill would not force anyone onto government-run insurance.
"I will not vote for any bill that requires people to take a public plan," she said.
From the other side of the debate, the congresswoman was told Democrats were not fighting hard enough for health care reform or going far enough in pursuing change.
Lydia, of St. Paul, criticized them for allowing their conservative opponents to take control of the debate.
"I'm disappointed that Democrats are not standing up and being strong," she said.
The opponents are noisier, McCollum acknowledged, "but we're trying to do this in a very thoughtful way."
A man who identified himself as a doctor at a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital said the VA system is proof government-run health care works well. He got a long round of applause when he encouraged McCollum to "support a system like that for all Americans."
When the forum ended, she thanked the audience for a "thoughtful exchange of ideas."
The tone contrasted sharply with Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann's town hall Thursday in Lake Elmo, where protesters tried to shout her down and the congresswoman's supporters drowned out their disruptions.
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