By Matt Snyder
FARRELL — Someone in the front started a standing ovation for U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire when he walked on stage at the health care town hall meeting Wednesday in Farrell. Half the crowd stood, half did not.
Throughout the meeting, Altmire, Wexford, D-4th District, was caught between poles as about half the 800 to 900 attendees applauded for health care reform and about half opposed it.
The crowd sometimes booed Altmire’s positions, calling out pointed questions or criticisms as he spoke. Their complaints sometimes drowned out his explanations, with supporters from their seats calling out, “Let him speak!”
Others in the crowd hollered for questioners to “ask your question” instead of commenting on their health care concerns, particularly those who spoke at length.
Altmire said the debate was heated because health care is personal, and it arouses people’s passions. While he felt some in his district are misinformed due to “electronic media,” he added that “by and large, they have legitimate concerns.”
At one point, addressing the overall tone of the audience, Altmire said, “There’s nothing wrong with yelling when you hear something you don’t like, but by and large, this has been respectful.”
Often striking a moderate pose, Altmire voted against the existing health care reform bill in committee, citing cost concerns and possible damage to small businesses. He has also said an overhaul is still very much needed.
He said people have legitimate worries about a “public option” proposed by some, if that plan were crafted in a way that didn’t put it on a completely level playing field with private insurance companies. He supports a public plan that is on a level playing field, and added that few in Congress support single-payer health care.
Altmire said many in the audience view government as a bloated, wasteful enterprise that can’t do anything right. Many in the crowd cheered wildly and stood to applaud.
After they sat down, Altmire added, “You’re not going to like me in a minute.” If, he said, the public option competes on a level playing field, and if the free market does a slam-dunk better job, he asked, “What are you worried about?”
His supporters cheered the remark, and some yelled their opposition.
Altmire took questions on tort reform and eliminating rules that keep insurance companies locked into one state from Richard Sundra. Sundra, McCandless Township, Allegheny County, said he and his wife are both cancer survivors, “and anyone who tells us the system is broken, they’re nuts.”
Altmire gave ground on the issue of regulations that bind insurance companies to one state, saying he holds no strong opinion against changing that rule. He said he opposes tort reform because there’s no bottom-line savings in it.
Doctors would pay less for malpractice insurance if there were a cap on some damages, Altmire said, but because they would continue to perform many tests and practice “defensive medicine,” costs would not be reined in. He said he opposes those caps, because they limit the options of families who’ve lost loved ones due to medical mistakes.
While there were hearty cheers at the start of the meeting when Altmire called the U.S. system the best in the world, some present were worried about how many people have access to that system, including Jacque Walker, Farrell.
She also said many in the crowd shouldn’t criticize if they already receive Medicare benefits. “You don’t want the government to run health care, how many of you are on Social Security?”
The crowd taunted each other at times. One man yelled for those on Medicare to “stand up” and called them liars for not doing so.
Another attendee, Ron Rygelski, Allegheny County, talked about the privacy of medical records and accused Altmire of having “radical progressives” in his party whom he feared. He spoke of 19th century political progressives who, he said, engaged in eugenics practices, suggesting that people could be left to die through the withholding of medical treatment in some cases. One woman, hearing that, walked out angrily.
The last speaker, Cheri Heeter, McCandless, claimed health care reform is not constititutional and told Altmire a Constitution can be carried in one’s pocket. Altmire produced one from his pocket, and said people can disagree on health care, but that reforming it is not unconstitutional.
Altmire also jumped into the question about costs. He opposes any reform that requires a tax increase and does not fund itself on its own cost savings. That got a holler from the room’s liberal constituency, as someone yelled, “You’re sounding like Melissa Hart!” Hart was the Republican whose seat Altmire won in 2006.
Altmire also dismissed worries that some who lose their job could be forced into a government plan as a misreading of the bill’s language.
