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By Leon G. Russ
HOMETOWN NEWS
A Town Hall Health Care Forum featuring state representatives Anton Gunn (D-Columbia) and Harold Mitchell (D-Spartanburg) was held at the Chapman Cultural Center on Tuesday, August 18 with about 150 people attending.
Gunn and Mitchell stated the forum was part of Gunn’s statewide listening tour to hear from the state’s citizens regarding health care and health care reform.
Mitchell said, “We’re hearing from the companies, the lobbyists, but we’re not hearing from the people. That was the most important thing, to hear from the people.”
Gunn said he embarked on the tour because “we continued to hear this drumbeat from people who were in favor of health care reform that their voices wasn’t being heard. We are hearing from people all over South Carolina that support health care reform, that support making it more affordable, that support giving people choices and improving the quality of health care.”
Most of the folks in attendance calmly stated their preferences but Floyd McGern of Greenville stated, “I would rather be in Japan or Barbados receiving health care than here.”
He then turned the tables on the anti-reformers when he fairly shouted “you’ve let a bunch of corporate communists and socialists” frame the debate.
McGern continued, “The Democrats have harmed the country by not being more aggressive in telling the truth” about health care reform.
Others, like Spartanburg’s Barbara Dorsey, blamed the media. She said, “I’m so disheartened and discouraged by what the media is showing.”
Tom Davies of Woodruff told Gunn and Mitchell, “We need the public option.” Davies, whose wife works in the health care industry, speaks of “watching the decline of patient service over the past 30 years in the name of profit.”
He also spoke of paying $1,400 a month for insurance “that may not cover everything” and “we’re not sure how good it is. If something happens we may lose everything we worked all our lives for.”
Sara Ann Smith told her story too. “I paid a thousand dollars a month for medical insurance for fourteen years and when I had to use it, it didn’t cover everything. I was so happy when I could get Medicaid. I don’t think for - profit companies will ever solve the problem.”
Spartanburg’s Rosalyn Wills stated, “Every year the cost goes up and the coverage goes down. I know people who have to choose between medicine and food. I watch TV and see this rage and I just don’t understand it. We need this change in health care.”
Pete Tindall then addressed those who oppose reform. He said, “There has been a tremendous campaign of fear and smear.” He noted, “Medicaid is a single - payer socialized medicine and it hasn’t put private insurers out of business.”
Tindall stated the proposed health care reform “is not socialism and it’s not going to ruin capitalism.”
Along those lines Dr. Brad Whitney of Landrum explained, “All my patients are on Medicare or Medicaid and I’m not starving.”
Whitney also questioned how so many who call themselves Christians can be against health care reform. “If we are a Christian country then why do we have so many uninsured?”
Retired Spartanburg physician Dr. Richard Conn blamed the insurance companies and large health care systems saying, “No one is working for your personal health.”
Seventy-seven year old Julia Molina of Inman was the surprise speaker of the event. She told those gathered, “I’m here because people of faith have to speak up. I attend church every Sunday. I’m a Republican and I’m for a single - payer system.”
Molina noted the U.S. spends more on military spending than the next nine countries combined and “I think by cutting out one or two weapons systems we can pay for it (health care reform).”
Gunn ended by stressing, “If you’re for health care reform you have to speak to your members of Congress and let them know. I encourage you to email and telephone your congressman and senators.”
lruss@hometown-news.com
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