Summary:
Panelists from Staten Island Community Groups and PNHP encountered angry jeers from “anti-government” mob in Staten Island Church Healthcare Forum Wed Aug. 12th. Differences between single payer and current house bill were felt to be irrelevant by the vocal audience members.
Details
This meeting was organized by Staten Island Family Health Care Coalition. Katie Robbins (Healthcare Now) and I were asked to present the House Bill 3200 and our critique. Katie missed our talk part due to a subway mishap but videotaped the event and will edit it. Event organizers told us that OFA was invited but did not send anyone to the meeting. There were police present as a menacing call was received by organizers prior to the event saying “there better not be any illegal immigrants there.”
I explained the basics of 3200 and where 3200 fits into the legislative process. I said I was for single payer, Medicare 2.0 for all and that it is a terrible misconception that healthcare is a zero sum game whereby the some must sacrifice to cover the uninsured. With “everybody in, nobody out” public insurance for all there would be plenty to go around and we could all do better by getting better value for our healthcare dollar with this fiscally conservative program. Jeers and interruptions came from the audience.
Other panelists included the MC, an internist with the Richmond MSSNY (AMA affiliate), a representative from the Richmond Chamber of Commerce, who outlined her members concerns with high costs of compliance with 3200, a representative from an HHC “safety net” facility who told stories of how help was needed for many, a representative from Jewish Community Services who tries to connect people with insurance about current problems of loopholes in eligibility as well as eligibles who don’t know they can get Medicaid, the director of a SI FHQC who described hardships at his centers and expressed concern that primary care physician supply would be inadequate to meet needs if everyone were insured. Many in the audience were impatient with all presentations, wanting to speak and clearly angry that Cong. Mc Mahon was not there. This was expressed through heckling, groaning, eye-rolling and interruptions.
A representative from McMahon’s office was present and attempted to field questions from the jeering crowd about McMahon’s non-presence. He committed to a future event with McMahon to explain the legislation as it evolves.
The MC then had audience members line up at a microphone to speak and tried to limit those who were yelling out. The first audience member mocked the bodyweight of the woman who convened the conference. This drew disapproval even from some among the “angry yeller” ranks, but also laughter. Major themes expressed by the group in an apparently orchestrated fashion: need to minimize government and taxes, accusations that proposed health reform is, variously “Trojan horse” for single payer or “Soviet” “Socialized medicine”. Someone yelled out from the sidelines questioning Obama’s citizenship. Right after that, one man, one of few blacks in the audience got up and left.
Other recurrent themes were the need for personal responsibility to buy insurance (“they got ipods, they should buy health insurance”), that illegal immigrants and others who “contribute nothing” are getting free services at the expense of “hard working Americans”. In response to a panelist’s story about a foot amputation in a diabetic who could not afford healthcare someone called out “Come on, she really couldn’t afford the $200 podiatry visit?”. When one panelist told the story of an insured person who nearly lost her house to pay for chemo an audience member called out to say “My insurance covered my chemo”.
Along with demands that the government get out of healthcare was rage at proposed cuts to Medicare and purported ineligibility for Medicaid for homeowners (sometimes in the same sentence) while illegals get a “free ride”. One of the panelists who worked getting people insurance had earlier said that the “homeowner exclusion” was a misconception. One person demanded “an end to class warfare”.
Other ideas expressed: Tort reform will control costs, tax cuts would lead to more jobs and then everyone could afford “to take care of themselves without the government”. I and others occasionally interjected to indicate points of fact on what was and was not in the bill (ie many of the suggested changes to public programs made by “the angry” are in the bill, the bill does not provide insurance to undocumented immigrants etc.).
We ended late when we had to leave the venue (a Moravian Church). Someone from the audience came up to me afterwards and made a comment I think is correct. He said noone cares what’s in the bill, it’s not really about the bill or healthcare but a bigger worldview.
In this worldview all of the panelists are part of an elite monolith who “don’t get it”. Some or all of the “the angry” were from the Staten Island Tea Party Organization. I’d estimate they made up half the crowd of about 150. They were coordinated and had notes. A rallying cry to throw representatives who vote for reform out of office and “keep listening to talk radio” led to fist pumping and cheers.
A soft spoken young man working with the forum organizers volunteered to give Katie and I a lift to the train. In the car he said he was really for socialized medicine rather than single payer.
Press coverage in Staten Island Advance (no mention of single payer) http://www.silive.com/news/advance/index.ssf?/base/news/1250163911258370.xml&coll=1