Sixty percent of television broadcasts last week was news coverage about health care reform, and the majority of that coverage was about the town hall meetings being held throughout the last few weeks. This statistic is not much of a surprise, considering the drama that is erupting at these town hall meetings which have gone from a bit of a ruckus to borderline violent.
The original goal of these town hall meetings was to facilitate a healthy debate (no pun intended) on reform and a chance to answer the questions of those concerned for what the new legislation would mean to them. Now, thanks to continuing protests, the goal is simply to get through the unharmed.
In Tampa, Florida U.S. Rep. Kathy Casto was trying to discuss health care at a town hall meeting while angry protesters screamed, yelled and pounded on windows until the police were called to settle the unruly crowd. A fight broke out inside the meeting.
One aide described the Service Employers International Union as being "deluged" with calls after some conservative outlets reported they had been attempting to assault protesters of the health care bill at town hall meetings. Threats went so far as to say, "I suggest you tell your people to calm down, act like American citizens, and stop trying to repress people's First Amendment rights...that, or you all are gonna come up against the Second Amendment."
In New Hampshire, NBC news showed footage of a protester with an unconcealed and licensed weapon. A man with a gun in plain view while waiting for President Obama to host a town hall meeting, and, according to the chief of police, the gun was registered to the man and because he was protesting on private property (a nearby church), he was within his right to be there.
In Philadelphia, Senator Arlen Specter and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius were booed and jeered and screamed at in close range.
In Florida Representative David Scott, a Blue Dog Democrat and member of the Congressional Black Caucus, accused protesters for hijacking his town hall meeting. On Tuesday he found a four-foot swastika painted outside one of his district offices.
These incidents beg the question of how much further are these protests going to go before someone becomes seriously injured or worse, killed?
It is clear that the organized protests are not there to debate health care but to shut down any conversation or chance of compromise. This is a shame because statistics show that it’s a debate we need to have and that the health care system is in desperate need of a change.
According to the site HealthCare Problems.org, close to 50 million Americans do not have health insurance, while another 25 million are underinsured. For those who do have health insurance, the typical family health insurance plan costs $12,000 a year or more. And in general for the country as a whole, health care expenditures in the United States exceed $2 trillion a year. In comparison, the federal budget is $3 trillion a year.
The underinsured are those who have health insurance but still struggle to pay their health care bills. Many underinsured Americans are faced with rising health care premiums, deductibles, and co-payments, as well as limits on coverage for various services or other limits and excluded services that can increase out-of-pocket expenses. The number of people who are underinsured has grown 60 percent to 25 million over the past four years.
Those statistics are truly only the tip of the iceberg. So how can anyone debate that the system is not flawed? Through myths and untruths and a biased media that is taking advantage of the fact most people have not read the bill.
Most of the talking points made by protesters of the bill are easily corrected after simply reading the bill. MoveOn.org gave a breakdown of not just the most common talking points against the bill, but where you can find the actual truth in the bill itself. Not only are the outbursts at these town hall meetings based on misconceptions, but they are hurting people who really want to understand the bill better. People who show up with valid concerns and questions are never able to get a chance to ask or get an answer to their questions, if they’re able to get in at all.
