Perriello’s town hall mostly civil
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Tom in Town
5th District Representative Tom Perriello held a town hall meeting at Charlottesville High School.
The Daily Progress/Matthew Rosenberg
Lee Godfrey of Staunton expresses her support for a single-payer option in proposed health-care legislation during Rep. Tom Perriello’s “Tom in Your Town” forum inside the Martin Luther King Jr. Performing Arts Center in Charlottesville.
More than 1,300 residents packed Charlottesville High School’s auditorium Tuesday night to deliver their views on health care reform to U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello.
Unlike many other such town hall meetings hosted by Democratic lawmakers, Perriello’s forum was not disrupted by vocal opponents of the health care proposals under consideration by Congress.
If anything, the crowd at Perriello’s town hall was mostly in favor of health insurance reform.
Many asked Perriello, D-Ivy, to support the so-called “public option” that would allow the federal government to provide health insurance coverage.
“Will you support a public option?” asked Bob McAdams, who was laid off from his software consulting job in December and has struggled to get his health insurance company to cover his medical costs. “I would do it in a heartbeat. Get the insurance company off my back.”
As McAdams told his story, an opponent in the back shouted: “Get a job!”
Despite the occasional disruption, the crowd was largely civil to those on opposing sides of the debate.
Proponents said a “public option” would drive down health premium costs and increase the quality of coverage as private companies are faced with competition.
Opponents, on the other hand, said they worry a public option would put private insurance companies out of business, increase federal spending, and move the country toward socialism.
Mike Teu of Keswick said he is skeptical of what he calls “Obamacare” because he is concerned about government spending and the growing federal deficit.
“Whether you think [health care reform] is right or wrong, we can’t afford it,” Teu said.
Teu added that Perriello’s town hall Monday in Ruckersville was attended by a crowd that largely opposed the idea of health care reform.
At Tuesday’s event, Olivia Johnston, a musician from Charlottesville, challenged opponents of health care reform to cancel their coverage and see what it is like to be uninsured. “I’ve lived with health insurance and without health insurance,” Johnston said. “Believe me, living with health insurance is a lot better.”
For his part, Perriello said he expects to support a health care reform bill if it increases competition in the health insurance industry and drives down premium costs for middle-class families.
“I came to Washington to solve big problems that both parties hadn’t been facing,” Perriello said.
Perriello said he welcomes supporters and opponents at his constituent meetings, dubbed “Tom in Your Town” events. The forums were originally meant to be an opportunity to meet one-on-one with the freshman congressman, but turned into town hall meetings after constituents expressed a desire for an open town hall-style event.
“Democracy has become the thing to do on your summer vacation. That’s great to see,” he said. “These are not angry mobs. These are citizens raising legitimate opinions on both sides.”
A reporter asked if Perriello is feeling heat from the Democratic leadership in the House to support the health care bill. “I don’t really care about the pressure from the leadership,” he replied. “I care about getting it right for the folks in my district.”
Many residents who turned out Tuesday night wore blue armbands to show their support for health care reform.
“The U.S. is the last industrialized country to not take care of its citizens in that way,” said Charles Lewis of Esmont, who wore a blue armband. “We need a system that’s going to cover you. If the private companies won’t cover you, somebody needs to do it.”
Outsidethe auditorium were a vast quantity of signs, many produced by President Barack Obama’s Organizing for America that read: “Standing Together for Health Insurance Reform.”
Not all signs were friendly to the idea of reform. A few people held signs that showed a picture of Obama with a Hitler-style mustache. “He Changed,” the signs read.
Bill Hay, chairman of the Jefferson Area Tea Party, a conservative group that opposes higher taxes and increased government spending, said it was “kind of funny” to see such a large crowd of health care reform supporters holding signs printed by liberal-leaning organizations.
“We get vilified. We’re accused of being funded by everybody. We’re not,” he said. “And tonight we saw one of the biggest mass organizations of people. This was very well organized. They were all holding the same signs.”
Perriello has scheduled dozens of similar forums. The next is from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday at the Fluvanna County School Board Office in Palmyra. Another will be held 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Aug. 20 in Lovingston.
For a schedule, visit Perriello’s Web site, perriello.house.gov, then click on “newsroom” and “latest events.”
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Reader Reactions
I am not a vet. My sole personal experience with the VA system was visiting my father-in-law at a VA hospital, where he later died. There was nothing in that experience to say that he was recieving the best care in the world, though his care seemed appropriate. He shared a room with four other patients—other than that, it was not the Ritz, but it was clean, orderly, and the patients seemed appreciative of their care.
It was not that long ago that the VA got hit with some seriously bad publicity. I guess that the news and images in the media have a way of painting a powerfully strong negative image.
Since Gordie has gone “silent”, at least briefly, I thought a few minutes educating myself about the VA healthcare system was in order. Thge results, I confess, surprised me.
The VA healthcare system recieves high scores from two important sources.
The first, comes from its patients—veterans give their healthcare system consistently high marks, higher than national averages for non-VA hospitals.
The only qualifier I would attach to this is that, generally speaking, patient surveys among the top quartile of public and private hospitals nationally, score very, very high. So, comparing one system to a national average is arguably but one way of looking at the question. If 80+% of Vets are satisfied, a full 10 points higher than the national average, that looks good. However,compared to say UVA, or MJH, and literally hundreds if not thousands of hospitals that achieve a 90+% score… you get my drift… calling the “system” the best in the world from a patient satisfaction standpoint is stretching a “truth”.
Similarly, compared to the national average of all US hospitals public and private, a RAND study found that Vets recieve a much higher standard of appropriate care. That is, using a sampling of medical charts (a typical means of evaluating quality of care), covering a number of different medical conditions, the charts produced by VA facilities scored higher, almost across the board, than their non-VA counterparts.
That said, there is nothing in the report that indicates what the statistical significance of the results is; the sample size appeared comparatively small to me, given the scope of the study. Moreover, there is no description of how the charts were selected, and can possibly be reflective of the whole—especially nationally. My own previous experience with comparative data produced by and for hospitals is that there is considerable variation; too small a sample, from too few hospitals—let’s just say, you get what you pay for.
So, with those two qualifiers, I am satisfied that the VA healthcare system is sprobably significantly above average.
The “best in the world”? Not from a statistical point of view.
It’s a bit like the hunter shooting at a rabbit, firing half of his shots 5 feet to the left of his target(s), the other half 5 feet to the right. On average, the hunter “hit” his target—even as the hunter missed the target every single time.
gordie - why don’t you move to Canada or England? then you will be happy.
Gordie,
What happened to your desire for no misinformation?
What basis do you have for calling the VA healthcare system “the best run in the world”? Cite some facts from Reliable Sources, please.
You have still not provided any data, or corroborating information, for your earlier claims that Medicare reimbursement is higher than private insurance. I am waiting.
In fact, as far as I can tell, not once have you backed your assertions with fcats from anywhere. Surely you are armed with more than opinion. Or not?
Another person who knows nothing about Goverment run programs.
The Goverment runs the VA healthcare system. The best run system in the world.
The Government bulds the hospitals, hire the doctors/nurses, pays the doctors/nurses and runs the prescription drug program at the lowest cost of any program anywhere.
Where the system gets messed up is when the greedy profit promoted private sector gets involved.
I would never support a public plan. The govt cannot demonstrate that it can control healthcare cost, so they change the debate to health insurance reform. Stupid democrats like Pelosi make stupid comments such as the insurance industry is evil…this inflamatory language is not only incorrect but does not solve problems. The Dems are failing at getting a public plan supported so they try to divert attention away from the real issue of controlling cost so that healthcare is affordable. Why does the govt need to control this? They already control a lot, and do a pretty lousy job at it (except defending our country). If health “insurance” reform is passed it will be a collosal failure because the funding of healthcare is not the major issue, it is the delivery. Stupid politicians…
Last, no need to worry about debating people who have a financial gain in this discussion—for the most part, there are only losers.
The good gains are any family rescued from total financial ruin from medical expense. The rest of the gains: trial lawyers keep what they got, big Pharama gains more access, CMS and politicians gain more power, big business sheds the burden of providing health care coverage for pennies on the dollar.
The losers: every taxpayer, every person needing healthcare that already has access, every small business person with a whit of financial acumen, and our children, who will be stuck with the bill.
As long as Congress continues to float half-measures with screwed up logic that a child can see through, we’ll be stuck with the current system—unchanged—and that, Gordie, is in nobody’s best interest.
I don’t “try” to be honest, Gordie. I was taught that way. Thank my mother, and father.
Nor was I asking for a “debate”. I challenged you to work with facts. You dodged that opportunity twice, and are running out of excuses.
Financial gain? I gather the good doctor Brown and his staff work for free? I don’t follow your logic.
According to you, my spouse stands nothing to gain either way. Are you changing that assertion? If so, you be honest, and acknowledge that the typical medicare reimbursement for a private physician could not pay for a tank of gas, even for a Prius.
By the way, I oppose your solution, which is no solution at all. I am for universal coverage, which can and should be accomplished in some other way than having a national health service. If you had any faith in BRMC, you’d acknowledge that it is not run by the government, yet appears to be doing a good job of meeting the community’s health care needs.
The “non-profit” distinction, by the way, is a tax status—often misunderstood by the public. It does not mean that the organization does not make a “profit”. As I said, in my spouse’s case, the difference between her share of practice income and her share of practice expenses—her “profit”, is no different than some people’s salary or wages, other than this—hers is 100% at risk.
Your arguments, with all due respect, are so circular, it is a wonder that you don’t suffer from vertigo. maybe you do—thta might explain the jumbled logic.
You make some pretty big leaps by stating that I, or my wife, stand to gain, one way or the other, in this debate—any more so than John and Jane Doe. If you think that any primary care doc is in it for the money, you are delusional. Moreover, it is an insult in particular to my spouse, whose medical practice has often been used as a model for others to follow; who has worked tirelessly on a volunteer basis to improve the standards of quality and care followed by practitioners in Central VA; who has volunteered countless hours, freely, to the community through the Free Clinic, and any number of boards; who has battled discrimination and prejudice against women in medicine, against her specialty of family medicine, and against primary care in general; who has been recognized lcally and nationally for excellence in her profession; who is a provider of choice, especially among the disabled, mentally challenged, and the elderly; who commits her “vacation” time to medical missions on four continents… oh, yeah, she makes a pretty good doc, wife, and mother, too.
No, she is not Mother Theresa, but she is not your phoney stereotype of greed and self-sufficiency that you shamelessly peddle.
Cheers.
anti there is no way I can debate with a person who has a financial gain in all this debate.
Their thinking is lopsided and they will protect their personal finances at all cost.
I know some of what you write has truth, but most is to discredit the administration for your own personnal fincances, greed or whatever at the expense of the citizens who do not have your social standing.
I can say you try to be honest and do let others know that you are coming from your OWN financial perspective.
Yes, yes, Gordie. Of course. It’s all a grand conspiracy. And I am in on it.
And, you of course, alone know the truth.
Look, Gordie. I am married to a primary care doc. I worked for years for one of the hospitals here in town. I have worked on medical records and billing systems.
But I am glad that you can explain to the good people here exactly how Medicare reimbursement works. What RVBS is, and how it works. And I am equally certain that you can explain to them why it is that a primary care doc gets reimbursed by Medicare for an office visit less than 1/3 of what it cost me to have my puppy seen by a Vet, or 1/5 what it cost to have a Maytag repairman come to look at my washing machine. That’s not in the eyes of the beholder.
Or perhaps you can explain away the study from Yale that measured acceptance rates of new Medicare patients by primary care docs across the country, and determined that 1) it varied by region and by rural vs. urban and 2) the South, including Virginia, is among the worst and 3) that nationally only 78% of primary care docs take new patients at all, only 58% take new Medicare patients unconditionally.
So, please, for the record, tell us what this fine island of idyllic medicine bills Medicare for and gets paid? Do they follow the norm? Or do they “upcode”? What is their proportion of 99211, 99212, 99213, 99214, and 99215 visits? State for the record what their Medicare reimbursement is. (Medicare reimbursement rates are published and are publicly available, by the way.) Then name one—just one—private insurer that reimburses Dr. Brown and his group identically. I’ll be glad to confirm.
Gordie, you can attempt to snow some people, all of the time, or all people, some of the time, but sooner or later, you’re gonna get caught. That’s what happened to Bush/Cheney. That’s what is happening to Obama/Emmanuel/Axlerod now.
Time to put up, or shut up. Go on the record with some facts. Not excuses.
Or, duck and run.
anti correction. I met with the administrator of Blue Ridge Medical center, which happens to have 4 doctors and 2 nurse pratitioners.
Dr. brown will one of the 4 doctors, which are Dr. Buni, Dr. Willings, Dr. Brown and Dr. Young.
Like I wrote before much of what you write is in the eyes of the beholder, who is writing the story, who is making the graph, who in the CBO is doing the reporting. As long as People want to look at material that is not fact and try to protray it as fact, then this conversation is fruitless.
Good Bye. Have a nice day.
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