RSSHealth-care town halls? None for Hastings
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No town halls on health care are scheduled during the August congressional break for constitutents of Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Pasco.
Why not? He doesn’t need them.
“The health-care bill is still viscerally hated mostly by people on the right,” said spokesman Charlie Keller. “If we were to go to downtown Yakima and have one, there’d be 500 people there all saying, ‘Yay Doc!’”
Protesters across the country have been confronting members of Congress at town halls held to gauge the voters’ mood for Democratic-style reform.
Keller said Hastings will be out and about throughout the district next week, although a precise schedule wasn’t available.
He also said Hastings had a conference call with 17 hospitals in the district this past week to gather information about what possible cuts in Medicare would do to their operations. In a word, they would be devastating, Keller said.
— Leah Beth Ward
With those without health insurance frequenting the er,which costs 10 times what a person with insurance would cost;
not yay doc,but bullcr** Doc.
I would not consider a healthcare townhall meeting a cheerleading session for Hastings or anyone else;the
discussion of this complex issue shouldn't be neglected by
anyone.To think there wouldn't be anything but softball questions for Hastings is absurd.If there was one person
asking an acute question,it would be worth the time.There are
those in his district who have had difficulties getting insurance,because of a pre-existing illness;oothers who have had diffficulty in getting their insurance to provide the money that their policy covers.Then the er tax burden;i'm
confident Doc would have found more than enough people with
serious questions for him to field;i believe Hasting's considers it not politicaly beneficial ; so much for being the representative of the people.
Doc Hastings does no one any favors by refusing to discuss healthcare reform in the public arena. "Just say no", right Doc? Private practice physicians who refuse to accept Medicare patients because the reimbursement rate doesn't cover the cost (in other words, it cuts into their already sizeable profits) need to understand the resulting burden this places on the system. If personal income is not an issue here, why is there such a shortage of med students interested in family and primary care practice - the majority want to specialize. The result, hospital ER's are providing primary care at the highest billable rates for these services. No, we don't need healthcare reform Doc - we don't even need to talk about it.
Report ViolationYakRob,
The reform the socialist dems are trying to ram down our throats is a complete overhaul and eventual government takeover of the entire system. If they were proposing to fine tune the system to deal with some of the issues you mentioned, you might have a point. But the dems' plan is a nonstarter so Doc is right that there's nothing to discuss.
Guess you know where his interests stand. He confereneced with hospitals but no meeting with his constituents. His spokeperson, Charlie, sounds like he needs some more training. Came off as flippant and vague. Good luck finding Doc this next week, is how I interpreted that last statement.
Report ViolationYes there is something to discuss - it's called compromise - both sides will have to discuss this because constructive reform will not happen without it - I have not said that I think that the proposed reform is perfect - but I also don't think we've seen the completed proposal yet. But, just saying that you're not going to talk about what's been proposed thus far contributes nothing to the search for a solution - NOTHING. Is that what you want? If so, then Doc Hastings is your kind of representative.
Report ViolationThis is classical Doc Hastings at his best...Dr. No. I understood that Doc represented all of the citizens living in his district, whether they voted or agreed with him or not. Just because he is against health care reform does not release him from his obligation to hear what his constituents want.
He is pandering to the republicans but not having public forums is deriliction of his duties to let all of his contstituents have their say. I, for one, Rep. Hastings want a public forum on this issue.
His spokesman, Charlie Keller, is flippant in his response and exemplifies our representative's attitude towards his obligations and clearly demonstrates that Dr. No does not represent us all.
Doc Hastings is a classic example why Yakima and Yakima Country remain 20 to 25-years behind the rest of the State and Country. The Republican Party has done such a tremendous job bringing prosperity to the Valley over the years. Virtually NO middle class... a few land barons, and everyone else with low-paying jobs. Just look at the statistics. This is a recipe for crime and social problems, and that is exactly what gets cooked up here in Yakima on a regular basis.
Report ViolationThere is no government take over of our healthcare system. I wish. It might run better. Our healthcare system is a mess. People pay too much for insurance and can't afford to get adequate healthcare. I am one of those. I can afford the health insurance, can't afford to go to the doctor. I like Doc Hastings a lot. Talked to him several times. But the Republicans are dead wrong on this one. Until they figure that out, our nation will continue to suffer. Some have spread the rumor that Obama's plan will kill senior citizens. That is the biggest bunch of garbage. With the current system we have, we will never have that many senior citizens to worry about. The Republicans don't want to see healthcare reformed because a lot of these corporations bankroll the republican party. Look at gasoline, Bush made out pretty good with his oil buddies by letting them price gough Americans. The same thing with healthcare. Think about it.
Report ViolationThis is not a conservative vs. liberal issue.
It is hard to imagine the conservative that can stomach the fact we pay 50% more of GDP than the next highest industrial nation (nearly twice most European countries) and yet we rank at 37th in quality of care (Between Costa Rica and Slovinia).
At some point we need to pull our heads back out into the light and ask "We pay too much by any standard and we get too little in return, what's wrong with this picture?"
Who is benefitting from the current situation? Don't take the easy answer because it is not the Docs.
Who is fighting any change at all by spreading fear?
Even if we chose not to improve health care quality (assuming we don't deserve it I guess), if we could bring our expenditures in line with the 2nd highest country (Switzerland followed closely by Germany) we could save enough money to fund 2-3 new Iraq wars depending on whose numbers you believe.
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