Whether they love it or hate it, people have been voicing
opinions on a proposed national healthcare bill across the country.
Constituents of the 13^th Legislative District had their chance last
week.

U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts, R-13, of East Marlborough held four
town hall sessions with the last one at Unionville Elementary School Friday
night.

“Good ideas will get bipartisan support,” Pitts told a crowd
in the school’s auditorium. However, the current bill is one he thinks isn’t
good.

“There are many problems with
this bill, as I see it. I cannot support this bill,” he said.

The bill under question is HB
3200, a Democratic Party sponsored bill that Pitts said will cost the American
taxpayer $1.6 trillion.

He said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wanted the bill voted on
before the August congressional break, but Blue Dogs, about 52 fiscally
conservative Democrats, told Pelosi they would not vote for the bill if she
forced it to floor that soon.

The bill could still be radically changed depending on what
the Democrats do. Pitts will hold more town meetings if possible, should that
happen.

All of the various spending bills, from TARP during the Bush
administration through the auto bailout, stimulus bills and infrastructure
spending have an interest of $1.1 trillion.

He said the bill needs to be discussed properly and that if
a Republican backed bill, HR 3400, could be incorporated into the current HR
3200 as an amendment, the reform would likely pass.

Pitts did his best to put to rest one fear that people have
about the bill. Pitts said, “There are no death panels. That’s something that’s
being demagoged (sic) by my side.”

People on both sides of the issue agree on one thing,
however, that medical and insurance costs are too high and insurance coverage
is spotty and inconsistent.

There were those who came to the meeting with their own
horror stories about the current system’s failures.

There was the mother of two 4-year-old girls with cancer
whose family finances have been devastated while the girls still need expensive
care.

A man who said he spent 30
years in the insurance business commented that high-risk pools–something Pitts
favors–are not a solution. He said he knows a couple in their 60s, the husband
has Lyme disease and because it’s a pre existing condition his insurance in the
high risk pool costs $1,800 per month and carries a $5,000 deductible. He said
the best solution is a public option.

For those people, and their sympathizers, a public option
with the government paying the costs, seems the best option, they said. Pitts
disagrees.

 He said the public option would
force an estimated 114 million people out of private coverage and into the
public option, he said, and if the public option runs into trouble, there will
be more bailouts and even rationed care.

As an example he spoke about a
businesswoman with 15 employees. She said it costs her $35,000 per year to have
those people insured, but if she didn’t and was fined for not having them
covered, the fine would be $20,000 so she would save $15,000 per year.

 Pitts called the public option
“the first step toward a slippery slope of a national healthcare single payer
system,” something that the liberal Democrats in Congress have wanted for 30
years. “This is their dream come true.”

 Yet another speaker took
exception to Pitts’ characterization of the public option as a “slippery
slope,” saying he favors the option.

 “It fills a gap for the working
poor,” the resident said.

 Pitts contends there are better ways.

 He said reforming medical malpractice would reduce the
number of frivolous lawsuits and help reduce medical costs by about $125
million.

 In arguing against the current
bill, Pitts said HB 3200 cuts Medicare by $500 million and adopts policies of
other countries that ration the types of medications that may be used. “What
the government giveth it can take away.”

 There was also a dispute in
the number of people who actually need to be covered. Those in favor of the
bill say they are roughly 47 million people in need of coverage, while those
opposed say it closer to 10 million.

Pitts said at least 10
million of that 47 million-person claim are illegal aliens. They are not
supposed to be covered, but there’s no way to enforce that the way the bill is
written.

 “They say in the bill that
illegal aliens will not be covered,” Pitts said, “but when we offered the
amendment to require verification of citizenship, it was defeated. … So, I
think they do want to cover illegal aliens.”

 He added later that an
amendment to the bill that would prevent rationing of care and of federal
employees from interfering in the doctor/patient relationship was also
defeated.

 As for the 47 million of
people allegedly requiring coverage, affected, Pitts said there are an
additional two million prisoners, 12 million who are eligible for Medicare and
Medicaid, 11 million who are above 300 percent of the poverty rate who have
chosen not to buy insurance. Pitts said the health care/insurance situation is
about a 10 million-person problem.

 “We can solve that problem
without overturning our whole system,” he said.

 Again he mentioned
malpractice reform, risk pooling for catastrophic coverage and that insurance
companies should not be able to deny coverage for preexisting conditions.

Pitts also thinks insurance
coverage should be portable.

 “I think you should be able
to take your insurance with you from one job to another or from one state to
another. I think it should be truly portable and I think you should be able to
purchase across state lines. And I think the tax incentives I’ve covered would
all help to bring competition and bring costs down,” he said.

 He added that the public
option would undercut the public sector.

 Another person asked what
part of the Constitution allows for Congress to pass HR 3200, to which Pitts
replied, “You could ask that same question about a lot of government
programs.”  Pitts then added that
the backers of the bill are “ideologically driven. They’ve been after this for
30 years. They see their opportunity and will attempt to drive this through.”

 Another woman said the
issue has been around for a long time, since Richard Nixon, and the reason is
because it affects so many lives. Health care reform is important  she said, as were things such as
Medicare and Social Security.

 “I’m sure many of you are
taking advantage of Medicare and Social Security,” she said to those speaking
against the public option. “Why is this option different, and such a threat,
when we all have come to depend on Medicare and Social Security?”

 While her question received
a round of applause from many in the audience, Pitts responded, “Because we all
have been paying into it."

Others shouted that Social
Security was broke at the same time.

Another questioner asked
Pitts what he thought would happen with the legislation. His answer was that
something would get passed, but he wasn’t sure what. It would depend on whether
the Blue Dogs stayed united or were split by their fellow Democrats.

“They will push something
through. I don’t know whether they’re going to get a public option,” Pitts
said.

Perhaps the loudest round of
applause and laughter came from one comment late in the session. A person said
that should the measure pass, all members of Congress should be forced to give
up their current plan and take the public option.