Tele-townhall with Jeanne Shaheen

NHAtHeart

NHAtHeart

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So, I had my question ready, was eagerly awaiting the call, I received a call at 6:04pm, answered the phone, silence, waited, silence, waited, silence, a few clicks and then the dreaded *beep beep beep beep beep* of a disconnection.

So far it's not looking good.
 
She just told us she's going to have to leave multiple time to vote and won't be here for the entire hour. One hour to get peoples input and she can't even give us that.
 
First question was about why people are so upset and whether or not they will be losing their ability to keep their own plan if they are happy with it. The PhD appointed by Obama that Shaheen got to fill in for her answered by saying there is nothing in the bill that will deny people the right to keep their current care.
 
Supposedly the congressional budget committee has said the plan will cost roughly 600 billion over 10 years. She says this doesn't include the savings by reducing the amount spent on "sick care" vs. Health care
 
Somebody asked what will be done in the bill to remedy malpractice suits to reduce the costs of healthcare. Her reply was "well we don't actually have a healthcare bill in front of us"
 
HA! Good question, "I believe this is a top down rather then a bottom up democracy, I feel we're being TOLD what is going to happen rather then being asked what should happen" FINALLY a good question!!
 
"I think your point is an important one, this is a very complicated issue, the congress has been complex and sometimes confusing. That's why I'm doing this" ... "There isn't currently one bill, there is a bill that came out of the healthcare committee that's on the floor, if you have input on that we'd be glad to hear it"
 
HR 3200 page 15-20, question is, will I have to change my plan or pay taxes on my plan, "My understanding is that, if you have health coverage that you like, you can keep it, if you have coverage you like, you should be able to keep that, if you're underinsured, lost your job then I think the public option should be open to you, under every scenario I've scene if you have health coverage you like you can keep it"
 
question is "Will we go to a single payer plan down the road, how can we pay for this plan at an estimated 1.6 trillion dollars" Response is -we can hardly afford not to do that, people without insurance aren't getting care that keep them from getting high cost care, people delay using the healthcare system until more expensive care is needed, people that could have addressed issues earlier at a lower cost come into the emergency room at a high cost. Care that is ultimately given is care that is past it's cost at emergency rooms. The President has been clear about having people keep plans they are happy with, the President is pushing for people to have a choice among different health care insurance plans.
 
15000 people on the call, 500 people in queue to ask questions.
question was about how we're going to avoid the 46 day waits that Mass has with their 97% insured plan, how is the government going to avoid getting into that situation, answer was "we need to train more professionals" Mary responds with "insure that people have access to clinicians as they need them on the primary care/preventive end"
 
"what would you say to people that already think the federal government is too intrusive and feel that giving the government control of 20% of the economy" reply was -it's not designed to take control it's designed to give more options, "I don't think that it should be a huge government program"
 
"Why now, with the recession, the two wars and the gigantic defecit"

there are a number of reasons, every day that goes by that reform isn't addressed more individuals have a hard time paying for health insurance, some of the trends we're seeing across the country, in NH 11% of people are uninsured, average family premiums have increased 95% since 2000, the burden on small business in NH are finding increasing difficulty in their ability to do that. With each passing day we see more people who are unable to afford coverage, more people denied coverage because of their medical history. Overall we have health expenditures that are on an unsustainable trajectory if we don't do anything in 30 years 1/3 of our economy will be tied up in health insurance, if we don't act NOW these problems will continue to get worse because people will continue to find themselves struggling to get coverage. This was Mary
 
We're not going to take away medicare if anything we're going to make it better -Shaheen

A lot of people currently on medicare that want a public option and don't want to lose their medicare

we already have a public option for seniors, it's medicare - Shaheen
 
She's wrapping up, basically I agree with the caller who said she doesn't feel we're being asked how we feel, we're being told how this is going to work and how they're going to do it. There were a lot of "I think" and "I feel" throughout the conversation. I hope we have to good alternatives for senators in 2010 since Gregg is stepping down and Shaheen is useless. Hodes + Shaheen = bad times :-(.
 
MaineAtHeart said:
HA! Good question, "I believe this is a top down rather then a bottom up democracy, I feel we're being TOLD what is going to happen rather then being asked what should happen" FINALLY a good question!!
Click to expand...

This sums up the entire healthcare debacle. They don't care what we think. They don't care if it's even legal for them to do it! The only problem with that question is the US is NOT a democracy, it is a democratic republic.
 
The NH AG that signed onto the letter to oppose putting the Assault Weapons ban back in place, Kelly Ayotte is running on the republican side. Anyone know anything about her?

I am hoping for a strong Liberterian candidate.
 
edhead35 said:
The NH AG that signed onto the letter to oppose putting the Assault Weapons ban back in place, Kelly Ayotte is running on the republican side. Anyone know anything about her?

I am hoping for a strong Liberterian candidate.
Click to expand...

That would be great to see but it would be more likely that we will see libertarian candidates run as Republicans like Rand Paul and Peter Schiff in the 2010 elections. The Republicans and Democrats have the system fixed to make it hard for third party candidates to get on the ballot.
 
Jason said:
That would be great to see but it would be more likely that we will see libertarian candidates run as Republicans like Rand Paul and Peter Schiff in the 2010 elections. The Republicans and Democrats have the system fixed to make it hard for third party candidates to get on the ballot.
Click to expand...

That would be good if only to start pulling the GOP away from their big-government fetish.
 

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