Demonstrators push Indiana Rep. Baron Hill on health care reform in Jeffersonville

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July 29, 2009

Ralliers cry, ‘We are serious about health care reform, now’

By BRADEN LAMMERS The News and Tribune Wed Jul 29, 2009, 01:28 PM EDT

A group of demonstrators gathered outside of Congressman Baron Hill’s district office in Jeffersonville on Tuesday afternoon demanding health care reform — now.

The protesters were out in support of the national health care reform bill President Barack Obama is trying to push through Congress. Currently, the health care bill is in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which Hill sits on.

“The Energy and Commerce Committee is working on what is called the markup procedure,” said Trent Deckard, district director for Hill. “They work out the details on what the legislation looks like, what it’s going to do, they answer all the questions about how it’s going to affect people, the coverage that it’ll get — all those things I was describing as ‘the process.’”

That Hill was working on the process of approving a health care reform bill did little to satiate a passionate crowd.

“This should be a no-brainer,” said Suzanne Ellis, a Jeffersonville resident. “I have not had health care for 12 years, and I am mad.”

Lack of care, dropped coverage and increases and costs were common themes in stories told by constituents attending the rally.

Becky Gaskill, a retired teacher and local resident, was on hand to share two stories about the effects lack of medical insurance has had on her and her family.

Gaskill’s brother, who was diagnosed with skin cancer, was forced to delay treatment for his condition.

He delayed treatment because he was forced to leave a photography business and take another job at a national hardware chain. The company he began working at had a provision that an employee must work for the company for a year before the person was eligible for medical insurance.

As a result of having to wait the required year, the cancer progressed, Gaskill’s brother had “chunks” taken out of his arm and he has gone bankrupt trying to pay his medical expenses, she said.

Gaskill has had her own problems with the cost of medical insurance, too.

Diagnosed with a brain condition called cerebral atrophy, the coverage she receives as a retired teacher is not enough to cover the cost of care that she needs.

The doctor Gaskill went to recommended she get long-term health care insurance, but she told the doctor she could not afford the additional cost.

“All I could afford was my regular care,” she said.

The doctor’s response was “Well, in that case, get ready to throw yourself at the mercy of strangers,” Gaskill said.

Current coverages, how the plan will interface with current health care insurance through employers, who exactly will be covered and cost of the whole plan are all questions that are slowing the passage of a national bill.

“One of the big questions that [Hill] has been working on is making sure, that with this system, we are keeping the actual cost of health care low and not just adding more dollars to that,” Deckard said. “Right now, it is very expensive for folks who are either getting their health care or paying for health care out of their pocket, or however they are getting to that.”

Katie Moreau, press secretary for Hill, echoed Deckard’s statement, but added, “I don’t think it’s so much of a dollar amount as it’s about addressing what is broken in the current system before adding millions to it.”

But the cost has caused trepidation for Hill and other members of a group known as the Congressional Blue Dog Coalition — a self-described group of fiscally conservative House Democrats.

The Blue Dogs are wanting a plan that is deficit-neutral before they approve national health care legislation. A deficit neutral plan also is what has been proposed by Obama.

“For Baron, the overall cost, which seems to be fluctuating ... is a concern,” Moreau said.

The cost presented in an initial plan to the Senate was about $800 million and the proposal sent to the House carried a price tag of about

$1 trillion, as previously reported in The Evening News. The most recent figures put the plan’s price tag closer to $1.5 trillion, Moreau said.

Regardless of the cost, the nearly 40 constituents and ralliers outside Hill’s district office want him to put his support behind the president’s plan now, and hammer out the financial figures later.

The rush may be because of a planned recess for Congress, scheduled for the end of the week. Many of the demonstrators voiced concerns that if a national plan does not get passed now, it will never get passed.

“If [Hill] wasn’t committed to this, he wouldn’t be putting this much time and effort into it,” Moreau said.

And if an agreement is not reached by the proposed break, the demonstrators want Hill to stay in Washington, D.C., until a passable plan is reached.

“I don’t think going back to the district and hearing what folks have to say is a bad thing,” Moreau said.

Scott Welker, a New Albany resident and Vietnam War veteran, disagreed.

“It’s not in the talking, it’s in the action,” he said. “Something needs done now; by dragging their feet, they’re not helping nobody.

“They’re letting everybody down, they’re letting everybody just drown out here.”

THE PRICE IS GOING UP

• $800 million — the cost of an initial health care bill to the Senate

• $1 trillion — the cost of the health care proposal sent to the House

• $1.5 trillion — the cost of the health care proposal by most recent figures, according to

Katie Moreau, press secretary for Hill