By DAVID A. MANN
It was a small protest rally, but a big issue.
Along drizzly 10th Street on Tuesday afternoon, stood Matt Duncan, an 18-year-old Providence High School senior who’d come to the office of U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh to protest a proposal that would provide a public health insurance plan.
He planned to deliver a letter to Bayh’s office asking Indiana’s junior senator to reject a health care reform bill — “especially if the Senate’s version is like the House,” he said.
The U.S. House of Representatives recently approved a health care bill that included the public insurance plan — commonly called the “public option.”
A procedural vote to start debate on a Senate version of the bill was expected Tuesday.
“I’m concerned about the impact of the reform,” said Duncan, who was contacted to hold the protest by Americans for Limited Government, a conservative advocacy group. He noted concerns not only about the debt that the new program would create, but also about lost liberties associated with a bill that would require health insurance.
He is not opposed to reform, but said he’d prefer a subsidies program that would allow people to buy health insurance from private issuers.
“We’re tired of this debt,” said Bob Hornung, who’d also shown up for the protest. “China already owns us.”
Duncan and Hornung were the only two at the protest as it got started about 4 p.m. However, Duncan said he expected more to arrive as the afternoon went on.
The health care debate has been ongoing since President Barack Obama proposed reform early this year. Rallies large and small — and for and against the public option — have been held in Jeffersonville throughout summer and fall. A few weeks ago, liberal group Moveon.org held a rally in nearly the same spot asking Bayh to support the public option.
Bayh was not in his Jeffersonville office for either protest; however there was a staff member there Tuesday to receive Duncan’s letter.
“Sen. Bayh is an independent voice in the United States Senate and will do what is right for Indiana,” an office spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement. “He hopes to have the opportunity to vote on a bill that will bring down the federal deficit and make health insurance coverage more affordable for Hoosier families and small businesses.”
