Two New Resources from PNHP On Disruptive Town Halls and Lobbying
Health care town hall meeting across the country are being attacked by a vocal minority uninterested in democratic debate. It is still important to attend these meetings as there will be many in the audience that are unfamiliar with single
payer AND willing to listen and learn.
Here are a few tips on what to do at disruptive town hall meetings.
Also, here are some tips if you’re planning on meeting with your Congressperson about Rep. Anthony Weiner’s amendment.
I don’t think the USA will ever move to a more euro healthcare approach…although it would be great. Congress and the Senate are too corrupt to do anything for the people…Our motto has been for a long time…Government of Corporations, By Corporations, For Corporations…whoever pays the most…
Short of anything Fidel would be proud of…we lost our country to greed a long long time ago.
Hey Brian,
I’m one of the “angry mob” out there — and proud of it.
You must be so “Wee-wee’d Up” watching your dream of state-run, socialist government-paid healthcare as it circles the drain, down the toilet.
Fidel would be so proud of you, though.
Dear Lila,
I hope you don’t get sick, lose your job, lose your health insurance, now have a preexiting condition, and then go bankrupt as do one million people a year because of medical bills. I don’t have to worry about that because I have Medicare. Good luck.
Lila wrote: “You must be so “Wee-wee’d Up” watching your dream of state-run, socialist government-paid healthcare as it circles the drain, down the toilet.”
Hey Lila, I attended several Town Hall Meetings here in the East Bay of California last month. And they were loaded with people like yourself hurling invectives and catcalls at everyone that disagreed with their point of view. Their ill mannered temper tantrum was quite a sight to behold. After one meeting had ended I saw one woman shaking her head in disgust as she left the auditorium uttering “my 5 year has more manners than some of these people”.
Good job Lila, that sure is the way to win people over to your side. Keep up the good work !
Hello, I’m one of the vocal MAJORITY opposing the current health legislation. You want to pretend we aren’t there. Excuse me I thought dissent and discussion were part of our system. “Freedom of speech” is fine until I disagree with you? Supporters of this socialized medicine plan hurl insults, labels and snide remarks more than anyone. We simply can’t afford the trillions in projected cost, it is an unsustainable program.Canadacare is broke, eurocare is tightly government-controlled highly-subsidized minimal-quality care running deep in the red, and most of those countries have a population half the state of Texas! Even on that small scale it doesn’t work.We need to think some more and create a fiscally responsible plan that can have legitimate bipartisan support.
I am a product of what is being bantered about as “socialized medicine.” How so?? I am a retired military officer with 21 years experience with the socialized Defense Department system! Yes, we are even socialists in the Defense Department!! And they are probably some of the healthiest people in the country.
I now have the privilege of being member to best running system in the country, under the Veteran’s Administration. I’ll take government-backed health care any day over the care I also get from the private sector (“Health insurance card, I.D., three forms of possible payment and names of your first born, please.”).
The facts are: these systems work. And, I pay for Medicare, and I have and continue to pay for Social Security, even though I will likely not get much of either when I turn retirement age. Who cares? The amount of money being spent fighting against this issue could easily pay for any health care reform program — years’ worth. For those chastising others for “insults, labels and snide remarks,” please look in the mirror.
You people are missing the point we don’t need government run health care. We need to go after The Health Insurance Companys with every thing we have. They are the problem!! sickforprofit.com Check it out !
Dear Lila and Andrew – I attended a health care town hall meeting about a month ago and that was the biggest pile of ignorance, misinformation, maliciousness and hysteria I’ve ever seen in my life and I include the moveon.org types in that assessment. My favorite sign? “Keep the government’s hands off my Medicare!” Whaat?
Mostly we had elderly Medicare and VA types who are terrified that the government will cut their programs back, teabaggers who are too foolish to realize that we could cover everyone for almost everything and have $350 Billion a year left over (they’re obviously clueless about the $800 Billion a year that the insurance companies and Big Pharma suck out that never goes to health care.) and then we had the the Obama/Baucus/Kennedy/moveon types who are just flat clueless that their plans mean a trillion dollar bailout for the people who are the worst offenders in this non-system. What was most obvious was that nobody was there to actually learn anything about the overly expensive, dismal state of health care in this country that produces third world results.
So listen up Lila and Andrew, We spend about $2.2 Trillion a year, almost 17% of our GDP for health care. A little problem, about1/3 of it goes for administrative expenses. The most any advanced country spends is about 12% of GDP, that’s Switzerland which has hung onto insurance companies, but they’re all nonprofit. Their overhead? no more than 8-9%. How about going to unregulated insurance companies? Texas has that and the last that I looked they have the highest rate of uninsured in the country. They probably have the highest rate of people with worthless policies too. (Never mind that our present recession was brought on in no small measure by unregulated insurance masquerading as securities.)Restricting law suits? Please. This takes up about 1% of all health care dollars. Think. If we had universal, single payer health care nobody could sue for the medical costs because those would already be covered. And really, do you want to let the medical establishment off the hook when they screw up and harm someone?
And finally Canada. Their system costs considerably less, gives far better results in almost all categories, their businesses are more competitive because of lower health care costs and the guy who started their Medicare, Tommy Douglas, is considered the country’s number one hero. To recommend a U.S. style system in Canada would be political suicide.
So besides saving that $350 Billion a year, what would single payer or Medicare for all look like? Well, everyone would be covered for medical, dental, drugs, vision and long term care. What would it cost? Most of us would pay a 3.3% income tax on top of the current 1.45% for Medicare. I think that’s a great deal that even the kid making minimum wage at MacDonald’s can afford. Right now, most of my friends on Medicare are paying 30-40% of their incomes for health care. Even better, we’d be on a pay go system for Medicare instead of worrying how much we’re going to have to jack up taxes for everybody to pay for the baby boomers.
So Lila and Andrew, maybe you want to support a system that is expensive, callous and ineffective. I do not. I think we’d be a better country if everyone could get decent health care. As a citizen I want to pay taxes for basic services for everyone, police, fire, education, water, sewage, roads, bank and securities regulation, food and drug regulation, Social Security, the military and, yes, health care for all. And by the way, yes, I expect our civil servants to give good value for our taxes.
May you both be blessed with perfect health.
Vashti Winterburg, co-chair Kansas Health Care for All
“We’re paying for a Cadillac! Why are we driving a Yugo?! H.R.676!”
Well said Vashti, and nice way to show them what manners really are!