Help! Questions needed for repuke town hall meeting tonight!

A fellow DUer will be attending a town hall tonight featuring Rep. Rob Whittman from Virginia. Since there is no chance Whittman will ever go for a public option, I am looking for questions that will basically help him highlight the hypocrisy of the republican arguments.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

what value do health insurance companies add to our health care.

We're both big fans of his.:thumbsup:

"insurance company" for "government."

Or, pose as a physician and state that you have to spend more time arguing with insurance company accountants to get a needed procedure covered than actually treating patients. Say that you had a patient who actually died while waiting for insurance company approval.

And be prepared to follow up and not let the puke Con. skate around a real answer.

They talk about the "death panels" that will come with health reform. There really are "death panels" now...the insurance companies. They decide if they want to help you or not - more often times it's not.

And make my healthcare decisions for me? And choose which dcotor I can see? And determine when I have to die because of some lifetime maximum on coverage that will run out after a year of cancer treatments? (true story, but not my story)

I had a doctor who was one of the most respected pediatricians in town. When my job forced me to go from the standard $500/year deductible, 80/20 setup that we had had for decades to a preferred provider situation, I found out that my brilliant pediatrician was not in the PPO.

So I asked my doc to apply to Aetna to be in their stable. He did--twice. He got the response that there was no room at the inn. How is that? How is it that an insurer will keep out a doctor who (1) is certified and highly respected in the field and (2) charges LESS than the in-stable docs. How is that saving anybody any money? How is that increasing competition? Why can't Aetna's stable accommodate this doctor?

Also, another question is: Are "performance bonuses" legal--that is, when a doctor is able to save the insurer money by undertreating or not treating at all? Is there a law that prevents an in-stable doctor getting a kickback when he saves the insurer money?

One more, is it true (as my doctors have confessed) that doctors have to charge exorbitant standard fees so that the insurers will pay them a reasonable amount after their fee has been discounted by the insurer? Also, I've been told that fees are so high to help cover the cost of the uninsured. So if this is true, how is this helping competition among providers and insurers or relief to the middle-class taxpayer and those of us who do pay?

The whole damned setup is wrong.

a profit really serves the people's needs better than a service whose primary goal is to make sure people get the health care they need, and if he doesn't have a problem with an insurance company paying their CEO over $100,000 an hour while rationing health care.

edit to add: If he brings up the tired old mem of "you have to pay to get the best people" ask him "at the expense of people's lives? And you mean the best at cutting costs by denying care?"

Oh, and here's one idea. Start out by saying that you are an "angry, hard-working American" and make him think you're on his side, and then go on to mention that you are angry because the hard-working Middle-Class is getting squeezed while the Upper Class gets richer off of our backs.

usually at these town halls "angry, hard-working American" is followed by something like, "take your government hands off my Medicare" or, "where's the birth certificate?".

Thanks.:)

question and turn their own rhetoric against them. Tell your friend good luck! :hi:

The private insurance companies have had over ten years since they last defeated national health insurance to show us they could do things better but they have failed miserably-- millions more people are uncovered, millions more have gone bankrupt paying medical bills, and costs have escalated out of control. Why should we trust them again when they have failed several times already to prove their case?

My mom loved her Medicare. It is a mixture of private and public elements. Medical services privately delivered between her and her doctors, with payments and cost controls publicly administered. It seems like a great system; why don't we adjust Medicare to cover anyone who chooses to join?

I want Medicare for All, a mixture of public and private systems. But the Veterans' Administration is more of a socialized system of medical care. Do you think the VA's socialized medicine should be eliminated?

We spent hundreds of billions to bail out the financial sector because we had a fiscal emergency; we now have a public health emergency and the public needs a bailout-- freedom from medical worries would be a great help to millions of us. Why not open up Medicare to all who want to buy into it on a sliding scale?

And I agree with the other poster about substituting insurance company bureaucrats into right wing talking points--
-- Do you think insurance company bureaucrats should be making decisions on our medical needs, or should our doctors make those decisions?
-- Do you think insurance company bureaucrats should decide who gets life-saving procedures and who does not?
-- Do you think it was okay that insurance company bureaucrats decided to drop thousands of people from coverage due to preexisting conditions?

it would have been much easier for the average Teabagger to understand. I guess. It's hard to imagine why in the world these lower- to- middle income idiots are showing up to fight for the profits of the insurance CEOs.

How can they not notice that their premium increases are out pacing their wage increases? That their co-pay goes up every year? That forgetting to list one medical procedure can cause them not to be covered for a debilitating disease?

Like Bill Maher said recently, "It's amazing what you can talk to the public into - like the war in Iraq. And it's amazing what you can talk them out of - affordable insurance".


:wtf:

to stir up fear and hatred in gullible groups of people in "genuine grass roots groups" (that just happened to have been silent during Republican administrations' wasting of billions of tax dollars on wars of choice) and getting them to storm the town halls.

Millions of dollars from large multi-billion dollar corporations have gone to right wing PR groups to get them to gin up "genuine grass roots" sentiment against health reform.

Amoral right wing PR-- willing to stir up prejudice and anger in whatever ways serve their clients' interests.

Next push is funded by old-energy companies to get more "genuine grass roots" sentiment to shout down any attempts to reduce our carbon emissions.

Their bullying has been very powerful so far. Ridiculous as it may appear. It is very sophisticated. Creating all kinds of apparently "grass roots" websites and groups to be moved to whatever actions they decide will best serve the corporations that fund them.

The Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC (and the website) has been following their campaigns in detail, as have other online news sites. I keep waiting for a serious review of that professional bullying in the regular TV news but haven't seen enough of it yet.

Follow up by saying those two programs are so very successful and loved by all that it would be a crime if Government got involved..

And I'm assuming these morans will drive home on government-maintained streets? And if they are mugged in the parking lot, they will rely on the police? And god forbid, when they return home and it's on fire, they will call the fire department?

What the hell is wrong with these people's brains???????

I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again - I don't think they know a single thing about health care (or taxes, or the deficit for that matter), it's all about the scary black man in the White House.

Sewers and drainage districts are socialist. Air traffic controllers, hospital districts, water treatment facilities, building codes, schools . . .

Have you read the bill?


(I have, and I asked this question of some right wingers. I prefaced it with "I don't trust the hype from anyone, so I decided to read it and make up my own mind.")

Did he get to ask questions?

He was out in the lobby with about 200 people. The place was packed, and our side was WAY outnumbered.
Turns out Rep. Whittman is also a "soft birther", When asked, he said something like, "I have no reason not to believe he was born here, however there are some concerns that need to be addressed".


My friend needed a drink about 5 minutes after leaving the meeting.