Here is a blog from the Houston Chronicle with video showing a town hall meeting held in North Houston by Rep. Gene Green - by all accounts one of the more civilized and best handled town hall yet.
Posted 8/6/2009 1:21 PM CDT
As part of its effort to keep 47,000,000 Americans without health care, the insurance industry and its wholly owned subsidiary, the Republican Party, has deployed thousands of rednecks to shout down members of Congress. The idea is to make it appear that Americans at the grassroots like the status quo, with insurance companies making profits hand over fist while denying the claims of people with serious medical conditions.
Houston's Gene Green was the victim of one such display of ignorant outrage two days ago. During a town hall meeting, Green was peppered with probing and relevant questions like "is it legal for me to record phone calls with your office?"
Another group of outraged insurance industry tools demanded to know why a doctor consultation would become mandatory under the health care reform plan. When Green held up the bill and repeated over and over that no such provision existed and asked protestors to point to that provision and they couldn't, the shouts only got louder -- because as we all know, truth can almost always be measured in decibels.
But the best part of the meeting was when one of the right-wing plants triumphantly asked everyone who opposes "socialized or government-run health care" to raise their hands. Virtually every arm was raised and there was much whooping back and forth among the yokels.
Then Congressman Green asked everyone who had Medicare to raise their hands and a large number went up.
Only Green, his staff, and a few sane voters present seemed to grasp that the right-wingers had there and then been made to look like the rank hypocrites they are. Undeterred, the right-wing zealots continued to harangue the incredibly patient Green, who answered every question.
That 47,000,000 people in this country go without health insurance of any kind and many millions more are underinsured is a disgrace. It is also a disgrace, but one they're willing to live with, that insurance companies do everything they can to avoid fulfilling their obligations under policies customers believe will be there when they need them. (Who hasn't spent hours on the phone with an insurance company desperately trying to persuade the person on the other end to do what the policy should make them do -- provide coverage for certain treatment, visit to a specialist or for needed medicine?)
Protesters have been organized by Conservatives for Patients' Rights. CPR -- which incidentally couldn't care less about patients' rights -- is run and funded by Rick Scott, former head of Columbia Healthcare. Here's who Rick is:
If Scott, the insurance industry, and the town hall screamers have their way, insurance companies will have no reason not continue hiking premiums while denying coverage. After all, they're in the business of collecting premiums, not paying claims. They have shareholders to answer to. It doesn't generate revenue to pay $250,000 so some eight year old girl can get leukemia treatment -- but it does do good things for the bottom line to deny, deny, and deny that claim until the treatment is no longer needed. That's the system these conservatives are fighting for.
Partisan Gridlock with Geoff Berg airs every Friday from 3:00 - 4:00 pm on KPFT, 90.1 FM in Houston, 89.5 FM in Galveston, and everywhere else at www.kpft.org.
Houston's Gene Green was the victim of one such display of ignorant outrage two days ago. During a town hall meeting, Green was peppered with probing and relevant questions like "is it legal for me to record phone calls with your office?"
Another group of outraged insurance industry tools demanded to know why a doctor consultation would become mandatory under the health care reform plan. When Green held up the bill and repeated over and over that no such provision existed and asked protestors to point to that provision and they couldn't, the shouts only got louder -- because as we all know, truth can almost always be measured in decibels.
But the best part of the meeting was when one of the right-wing plants triumphantly asked everyone who opposes "socialized or government-run health care" to raise their hands. Virtually every arm was raised and there was much whooping back and forth among the yokels.
Then Congressman Green asked everyone who had Medicare to raise their hands and a large number went up.
Only Green, his staff, and a few sane voters present seemed to grasp that the right-wingers had there and then been made to look like the rank hypocrites they are. Undeterred, the right-wing zealots continued to harangue the incredibly patient Green, who answered every question.
That 47,000,000 people in this country go without health insurance of any kind and many millions more are underinsured is a disgrace. It is also a disgrace, but one they're willing to live with, that insurance companies do everything they can to avoid fulfilling their obligations under policies customers believe will be there when they need them. (Who hasn't spent hours on the phone with an insurance company desperately trying to persuade the person on the other end to do what the policy should make them do -- provide coverage for certain treatment, visit to a specialist or for needed medicine?)
Protesters have been organized by Conservatives for Patients' Rights. CPR -- which incidentally couldn't care less about patients' rights -- is run and funded by Rick Scott, former head of Columbia Healthcare. Here's who Rick is:
If Scott, the insurance industry, and the town hall screamers have their way, insurance companies will have no reason not continue hiking premiums while denying coverage. After all, they're in the business of collecting premiums, not paying claims. They have shareholders to answer to. It doesn't generate revenue to pay $250,000 so some eight year old girl can get leukemia treatment -- but it does do good things for the bottom line to deny, deny, and deny that claim until the treatment is no longer needed. That's the system these conservatives are fighting for.
Partisan Gridlock with Geoff Berg airs every Friday from 3:00 - 4:00 pm on KPFT, 90.1 FM in Houston, 89.5 FM in Galveston, and everywhere else at www.kpft.org.
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