Parker Griffith gets it from both sides at health care town hall

I attended Parker Griffith’s town hall meeting on health care tonight at the Space and Rocket Center.  If that meeting is any indication of how people feel elsewhere then I’ll tell you right now – the safest thing any politician can do is stay away from the issue.  Everyone is EXTREMELY passionate and, often, quite irrational.

I’d estimate the attendance at roughly 200 people.  There was a good cross section of the political spectrum there.  I sat with Dale Jackson and Joel from Right on Huntsville.  Dale Twittered the Q&A real time.  Saw some other conservative folks I recognized as well.  Also saw Moocat (who had a video camera, so we’ll wait for that product) and Countrycat from Left in Alabama as well as a few other so-called “progressives.”  Based on applause through the evening I would guess the crowd was 60% against government health care and 40% for.

Griffith started things off with some brief comments.  If the U.S. adopted a single payer system, which Griffith opposes, he said it would be based on a Medicare type system.  In other words, it would suck.  Griffith went on to point out that problems with our health care system impact the global competitiveness of our businesses.  He concluded by saying that we have 6% of the world’s population, but we’re #1 in many categories (military, health research and development, etc.).  The unstated question seemed to be, “Why aren’t we #1 in health care?”

I thought the first question pretty much set the tone for the evening.  Paraphrasing: “What in the Constitution makes you think the government has a right to establish universal health care?”  Loud applause from the crowd.  Things are looking up.  I had anticipated a room full of crazy lefties demanding that we go talk to Castro about how to set up a world class health care system.  Griffith’s response was not great.  He could have cited the parts of the Constitution that he feels give the government that authority, but instead he tried to call the questioner, a senior citizen, a hypocrite.  He asked the man if he used Medicare.  You could hear the “Gotcha!” in his voice.  But the man blew a hole in that by responding that he did not and he pressed Griffith further.  Griffith finally said that we have a “government by the people” and if they countenance politicians passing any particular type of health “reform” by continuing to vote for them then that is just fine.  He ended by saying, “I appreciate your point, but I think we’re past that.”

At this point the “questions” devolved into rambling mini speeches with no underlying question.  It was ridiculous.  The big government types complained about how medications are cheaper in Columbia, Europe, etc.  One lady seriously complained that health insurance companies are too numerous and policies too varied.  Poor dumb consumers can’t possibly be expected to figure all that out, therefore we need a single payer system so that she can be relieved of that burdensome decision.  Kind of makes you wonder how she is able to find car insurance considering the broad array of providers and levels of coverage.  Maybe Uncle Sam should take care of that decision for her too.  And has she seen the spice shelves at the grocery store?  Very overwhelming.  Other people had similar comments yearning for some medical utopia.

And then the real fun started!  A man got up and was nervously talking about the Glass-Stegall Act and lack of regulatory oversight that contributed to financial collapse.  Just when I was starting to wonder what the hell this guy was doing there I heard him say something about Drs. Perez and Brady.  My ears perked up.  And then he “went there” as the kids used to say.  He suggested it was a lack of regulatory oversight that allowed Griffith to keep the findings of their peer review quiet.  Mentioned that the peer review could be found on theattackmachine.com – I was just relieved he didn’t cite this little ‘ol blog!  At this point I’m about to fall out of my seat due to laughter and the guy kicks it up a notch.  He said that the lack of regulatory oversight in that case amounted to an “unadulterated rape.”  Yes, that is a direct quote.  Good times.  Griffith understandably shrugged that questioner off and moved along.

More useless, rambling speeches with no direct question.  Waste of time.  A guy does ask a good question about tort reform.  The guy led off his tort question by thanking Griffith for his “no” vote on the cap and trade bill and the stimulus.  Huge applause.  Griffith tells the old saw about the trial lawyer being in the examination room with the doctor and the patient.  Said that no tort reform issues have been discussed, but he does recognize the problem of defensive medicine.  No real, concrete answer to the question, though.

More people wasting minutes from their lives with inane comments.  A few were decent.  I tried to ask an actual policy question, not some Casey Kasem Request and Dedication, to no avail.  I was hoping to ask about his thoughts on how to deal with the embedded costs of health care our companies face which hurt us competitively in the international market.  What proposals are being discussed in Congress to decouple health care from employment?  I’ve long believed that the government’s encouragement of employer provided health care via tax incentives is bad policy.  It hides the true cost of health care from the ultimate consumers.  It stifles a vibrant labor market because it discourages employees from taking risks to start new business ventures or even switch companies.  Something needs to be done.  But, I had to leave early to keep a commitment to my wife and kids to take them out for dinner so I didn’t get to ask my question.

The key take away is that this is a tough issue to address.  I honestly don’t see how Congress can touch it with substantive legislation without having significant bloodshed at the ballot box in 2010.

Update: Here’s the Huntsville Times article on the event.  The article mentions a couple of bills Griffith said he would introduce:

Griffith plans to offer two bills in the coming weeks. One would require congressmen to use the public option for their own health care, if such a measure is made into law. The second would require any health care legislation be submitted to all members of Congress a week before it can be voted on, to avoid last-minute deals.

The first bill is very good in its intent.  It has a snowball’s chance of passage and would likely be undermined even if it did, but I like the attempt.  The second is indicitative of how screwed up our country is.  Those who represent us routinely do not read the legislation they vote on.  How could they?  Individually the bills are often enormous and complex and collectively the sheer volume is overwhelming.  They just vote the way their aides and the lobbyists tell them too.  Our government already does too much, leaving them unable to “read the bill.”  The last thing we need to do is give them more responsibilities – like the entire health care system.