Report on Rep. Rick Larsen Town Hall on Healthcare, Mt Vernon, Saturday, August 8th

About 15 minutes before start time, the line to enter the building snaked all the way around the perimeter of the parking lot and was heading for the street. For those who are familiar with the Skagit PUD facility, and the size of the conference room, it was clear people getting in the line then would not get into the building. KING5 news said the capacity was 250, and the crowd outside was 4-5 times that. I guessed about 1,000 people, so that actually matches KING5's numbers.

The back wall of the conference room is floor to ceiling glass, and the overflow stood outside and could see in. Larsen took questions inside and then went outside to take more questions, in and out 3 or 4 times. The PA had speakers outside so everyone could hear.

The crowd was about evenly divided between pro and con reform. Everyone who got inside was asked to sign in. Larsen set the ground rules, saying we were going to do this the "Pacific Northwest way", that is, nicely. He suggested that if we allowed spontaneous applause, it should be OK to allow booing, so he asked that we refrain from both. There were a handful of people in the crowd who couldn't restrain themselves from occasional outbursts, and these people either settled down or left early. But for the most part, for those who actually wanted to learn something as well as hear what others had to say, it was pretty good hour and a half, or more, if your stayed until the end. It was originally scheduled for only one hour.

Larsen spoke specifically about provisions in the current version of H.R. 3200. Right off the bat someone claimed the bill would provide health care coverage for illegal aliens, which Larsen forcefully refuted, citing the section and page in the bill. Other myths that you've probably heard were also brought up, discussed and refuted. When Larsen refuted these strongly held beliefs about the bill there was someone yelling "Tell the Truth" and other background rumblings from the crowd. Myth vs. Reality

I was struck by the silence of the crowd, however, in response to one question. After a number of questions and some comments on the inability of the federal government to run programs without fraud, waste or bureaucratic red-tape, Whatcom Democrat Abe Jacobson asked, so we've heard a lot about government waste. My health insurance company paid $1.1 billion, that's billion with a "b", to its CEO when he resigned. Would you address the issue of waste and fraud in the health insurance industry? Abe's question stop the opposition cold. They see themselves as champions of the little guy, and have erroneously targeted the government as the sole enemy. In order to oppose what they see as a government takeover of health care, they are forced to defend the private health insurance industry. But they are also angry about bailing out wall street, and recognize getting screwed when it's pointed out. The opposition is unlikely to be convinced that any reform legislation is a good idea, but at least we can remind them of the failures of the private health insurance industry. Bankruptcies were not mentioned at all while I was there. Addressing health insurance company profits and bankruptcies due to medical bills would help uncover who the bad guys really are.

Another Democrat who attended the town hall meeting wrote me to say:

“I, too, had estimated the crowd as evenly split between Dem-friendly for reform with the other half made up of various pockets of tea party, MOB name-tagged, groups dressed in red white & blue, vote-em-out, abortion sign wavers, and the very active Obama-as-Hitler posters and pamphlet tablers. I mingled!

I agree that Rick Larsen handled the "discussion" very well, especially when he spoke out against the Hitler depictions and when he told the crowd to do their own research instead of believing some email sent by "someone you don't even know." I noted that the tea party types arrived early and stayed late. Rick did his wrap up at 4:45 to a mostly anti-government group. He allowed them A LOT of talk time, especially the small business owners, doctors and nurses who spoke against reform. When he was accused of calling only on people he knew (not true), he called on the "guy with the cap" which displayed NRA and a military insignia. During his 3rd or 4th trip outside, he called on an 11-yr old who asked why he's spending too much money on the stimulus bill. He scored a few points with that! Overall the crowd's input probably reinforced his current position and maybe a few people went away with some new information.

I got the impression that Rick regards the thousands of phone calls to his offices as all being polarized, either for universal healthcare or no government in healthcare. He said it would be more helpful if constituents would provide specific details about what works and what doesn't work with their current healthcare. Good grief! Here's a detail Rick: my employer and I pay $940 per MONTH for health coverage for one single person plus co-pays and deductibles on top of that. Friday I got notice that my plan just went up ANOTHER 13.42% But of course, if asked, the 80,000 teachers in my union might say they are "satisfied" with "their" healthcare. But that's the wrong question. Is it right to let private enterprise price-gouge and manipulate the market for a profit while millions suffer? I believe that would be 80,000 no's from my colleagues.”

Not surprising, but unfortunate, the TV news coverage failed to include anything substantive about health care reform. All they reported was the crowd, the controversy, and related it to the national trend of town hall meetings. I think it would be good to lobby them to actually cover the substance of the Town Hall.

Congressman Larsen said he will set up some more town halls on health care for the last week of August.