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Richard Schwartz, Claude Dunn and Jim Thomas speak with Dr. Chris Lillis, a primary-care doctor, about the health care reform issue after the health care forum by the Virginia Organizing Project. Lillis was a forum speaker.
Charlotte Jones speaks to the crowd gathered at the health care reform forum held yesterday evening. |
BY JANET MARSHALL
It wasn't your typical town hall meeting on health care last night--or at least, it wasn't what has often passed for typical over the past few weeks, as people around the country have gathered to debate health care reform.
Unlike at some meetings elsewhere, there were no angry protesters at a forum in Fredericksburg. People didn't shout at each other. And no one--at least noticeably--brought a gun.
Instead, the roughly 80 people who crammed into a meeting room at The Free Lance-Star witnessed a civil discussion of the current health care system and efforts to reform it.
Moderator Christopher Lillis, a Fredericksburg physician, set the tone by giving those gathered some ground rules.
"We want to show respect for each other," said Lillis, an internist with Chancellor Internal Medicine who writes a monthly health column for The Free Lance-Star.
Ali Faruck, from the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy--which co-sponsored the event--spoke of the need for "a moral voice in the health care discussion."
"We see the suffering that people have in the broken system," Faruck said.
The event was co-sponsored by the Virginia Organizing Project, an advocacy group that promotes a public health insurance option.
The perspective of most attendees and invited speakers reflected the group's view that the health care system is broken, reform is sorely needed and a public health-insurance option is necessary to cover the uninsured and underinsured.
Stafford County resident Charlotte Jones shared her experience with Tricare--a military insurance program--as a way to convey her feeling that government-sponsored insurance can be effective.
"It is the best-run program that I've ever been insured with," Jones said.
Jones went on to address a concern that's been widely voiced elsewhere--though not at this gathering--that government-run insurance would limit which doctors patients can see.
"I can choose the physicians I want to go to," Jones said.
Karen Dulaney, executive director of the Lloyd F. Moss Free Clinic in Fredericksburg, didn't weigh in with an opinion on health care reform, but spoke of the rising number of people who need the clinic's help.
"There was a nearly 20 percent increase in patients and patient visits in 2008," Dulaney said, adding that the figures continue to rise.
A free clinic patient, Valerie Bey, said she was extremely grateful to the clinic because she's uninsured--a situation she said others can easily face.
"You just never know when your job is going to lay you off," she said.
Lillis, the physician and moderator, spoke of multiple problems plaguing the current system, including the power of one or two dominant insurance providers to drive the cost of medical care--leaving the uninsured stuck with massive bills.
"Right now, it's helter-skelter," Lillis said of the current health care system.
The event attracted a mostly pro-reform, pro-public-option group, and it was structured to minimize the opportunity for spontaneous remarks that might lead to conflict.
There was an undercurrent of tension among those who weren't able to ask questions--questions were limited--or who felt their views weren't represented. One woman who wasn't able to voice a question spoke forcefully afterward to Lillis.
But the dialogue throughout the meeting remained civil.
Robert Yednock, a retired teacher who lives in Stafford County, told the crowd he's very concerned about what might happen to senior citizens if health care reform occurs. Yednock left the meeting early, and said afterward that he thinks health care reform will significantly raise the federal deficit. He said he does not support a public health care option, and does not trust that the politicians debating reform have even read the bills they're considering.
"I agree the health care system is broken, but God forbid we take the program they're offering," Yednock said.
As the meeting wound down, the event's organizers talked to attendees about what they can do to advocate for change, including calling members of Congress.
"I wouldn't call more than once a day, but I would say [to call] at least once a week," said Kevin Simowitz, of the Virginia Organizing Project.
The interfaith group encouraged attendees to read and sign a document it created called "A Faithful Vision for Health Care." (It's online at virginiainterfaith center.org.)
For those interested in further discussion of health care, Rep. Rob Wittman has scheduled a town hall meeting on health care for Sept. 1 at the University of Mary Washington's Dodd Auditorium, at 6 p.m.
Janet Marshall: 540/374-5527
Email: jmarshall@freelancestar.com
