Monday, August 31, 2009

Reports From Lynn Woolsey's Town Hall in Petaluma

Early reports on Lynn Woolsey's Town Hall: Not good. Opponents of health care reform had filled up the hall EARLY. Close to a thousand people from both sides of the debate showed up, spilling out into adjoining rooms where they listened over an intercom. 

As I had written earlier about the Pete Stark Fremont Town Hall, we have to get there at least one hour, if not two hours, early if we want to get in.  (There are as-yet unsubstantiated reports that the cars and trucks in the parking lot had an unusually large number of SoCal license plates - it is possible many of the early-arrived opponents were not even constituents of Lynn Woolsey.)

But take heart, some are saying the turnout was approximately 50:50, some are saying there were actually more supporters of health care reform, but that those supporters did not arrive early enough to show their real ratio in the hall. Reportedly, the biggest cheers came for a Petaluma small business owner as reported in the Marin Independent Journal:

'Jason Davies of Petaluma, the vice president of a software company, said, "Our company has become less profitable over the last several years because of the increasing costs of our health care premiums."

Many others tried to score points for health care reform based on caring for others, and moral duty.  I'm sorry, they're absolutely right in their convictions, but wrong in their approach.

I would like to encourage us to stop trying to convince the right based on morality - that particular argument works for us, but not for them. Instead, we need to make the point, as Mr. Davies did, that our small businesses are suffering under the current system of for-profit insurance companies - which in every other country in the developed world would be non-profit and strictly regulated. And most importantly, we need to make the point that we pay the highest price for health care out of all industrialized nations, and we have the worst results in the developed world, from infant mortality to longevity.

We need to make that point over and over again. Because the other side has proved that arguments about "the moral good" don't matter to them. How do we know that? Because some opponents of health care reform were actually booing constituents who had serious illnesses. 

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2 comments:

  1. UnknownSeptember 2, 2009 at 12:07 PM

    Hi,

    Thanks for your comment – I guess I'm somewhat flattered. I wasn't really prepared to speak but I just had to say something and I'm just glad it seemed to resonate. Just a correction, I'm not the owner (though the owners do share my views on this), but yes, I do agree that it seems everything needs to be addressed in dollars and cents for many on the right. I've always felt generally that ensuring a highly educated and healthy public is the best way to ensure economic growth. People can't buy our products if they aren't healthy – and when they can't pay their medical bills, we end up paying it anyway. For me, it finally comes down to how we can ensure a brighter future – our country's greatest resource are it's citizens. Our future depends on them being healthy, regardless of party affiliation. Most of the opponents aren't really debating healthcare – they really just seem to want to replay the last election. I do believe it's our time to take our country back. Debate is healthy and so is minority opposition. But that doesn't mean we should ignore the views of a large majority who elected Obama and Democratic members of Congress when it was very well established that they would move forward on healthcare reform and a public option.
    That's what really tipped it for me. When I heard one woman say this was suddenly being pushed on them, I had to remind everyone that this shouldn't be a surprise and that the outcome of the last election clearly indicates that most Americans are in favor of a public option (if not single payer) and that we don't have to keep debating talking points from the 2008 election cycle. The guy who said I was a plant was wrong of course...I'm not that good an actor... : )

    Best regards,

    Jason

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  2. evaSeptember 3, 2009 at 1:41 PM

    Jason,

    Thanks for writing in. And thank you for standing up at Lynn Woolsey's meeting. It's greatly appreciated.

    I'm wondering if your company is interested in getting involved with the Main Street Business Alliance, a group of small business owners who support a robust public option. It appears they've already won over one Blue Dog Democrat. To me, that's really impressive.

    This article from the NY Times should tell you more about them:

    http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/small-business-group-forges-an-alliance-for-health-care-reform/?hp

    Here's their website:

    http://mainstreetalliance.org/wordpress/

    They don't yet have a presence in California. But they need one. Or maybe there is already a similar group in California that they could network with.

    Thanks again for standing up.

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