The Virginian-Pilot waxes rhapsodic about a peaceful, civil, bipartisan meeting on health care. There were “no rants, no rowdiness” at a “forum” on health care with Congressman Glenn Nye.
The participants emphasized common ground and avoided sniping. The crowd of nearly 100 submitted “sober, substantive questions.” There were “no outbursts, no tirades.”
‘It was not a town hall,’ said [Matt Manock, who organized the forum], referring to the public health care forums across the country that have sometimes degenerated into shouting matches, ’so that in itself homogenizes the audience a bit.’
The requirement to submit written questions also reduced the possibility for shrillness. ‘That wasn’t necessarily to filter the questions,’ Manock said, ‘but to minimize people who like to stand up and talk.’
‘This is how it ought to be,’ Democratic Rep. Glenn Nye said afterward.
Who were these concerned, constructive, polite, helpful citizens? Why, the Hampton Roads branch of the Eastern Virginia Association of Health Underwriters.
What is the association? The association, Manock said, consists mostly of independent insurance agents and brokers.
In other words, it’s a gathering of people who sell health insurance. You know, private health insurance.
That mythical product that you get from your employer or purchase on your own that protects you from illness and injury.
Or at least it’s supposed to.
The only the problem is, the way private health insurance makes money for private health insurers is, it disappears when you need it most, when you get sick.
The Pilot describes the written questions at the forum as respectful and thoughtful. Did anyone respectfully, thoughtfully ask why thousands of people who have private health insurance are forced into personal bankruptcy or lose their homes when they face a medical crisis? Did anyone politely wonder about the victims of this “adverse selection?” Did anyone ask why, if the private health insurance system is so efficient, premiums have skyrocketed while fewer and fewer people are insured? Did anyone ask about the exorbitant profits extracted by these private health insurance companies from policy holders, sometimes for the mere privilege of continuing to breathe?
Having a forum to learn about health care reform among health insurance salesmen is like trying to learn about the need for a lemon law at a used car sales convention: What, we have a problem?
Of course, Glenn Nye politely addressed the burning question of the so-called public option, intended to provide some respite for that most wretched of creatures, the “uninsurable.”
‘I will consider the notion of a public option,” Nye said, “… if it can be set up in such a way that it does not crowd out the private insurance market. That reduces choice, not increases it.’
Representative Nye, when are you going to discuss your stance on this life or death issue with the hard-working citizens who voted for you?
They can’t afford to offer you lunch at a high-minded forum full of lobbyists. They just lost their lunch.
Filed under: Economy, Glenn Nye, Health, Health Care, Health Insurance, Local | Tagged: Economy, Hampton Roads, Health Care, Health Insurance, Nye
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