U.S. Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet held a health-care town hall in Pueblo last week and has sent out a video and a press release of the event. The video has the senator speaking on the issues sincerely indoors to an interested crowd. “The status quo is completely unacceptable,” he said. “If you’re at all concerned about the fiscal condition of our government, which I am, we desperately have to do health-care reform.”
Protesters appear outside, walking in circles and chanting dramatic slogans.
Bennet made the video and has included it with the release as an op-ed running today at the Huffington Post. The video doesn’t flatter the protesters as seriously engaged in the issues. “Health care no!” “I hate Obama-nation!”
Bennet titled his op-ed “Health care is a moral obligation”:
We have an urgent moral obligation to change the health care system in this country so that every American has access to affordable, quality health care.
Yet when I held a town hall in Pueblo on Saturday, I was greeted by a self-described “mob” with chants of “Health care…NO!” and “I hate Obama-nation” …
Every Coloradan should have access to affordable, quality health care.
Any health care reform bill should control costs, allow people to keep their own medical plan and their own doctor, increase competition, and increase coverage — all in a fiscally responsible way.
I also believe providing patients with a public insurance option — that increases competition and drives down prices — would help to achieve these goals.
Our families, small businesses, and economy need relief from the catastrophic impact of high health care costs. And we must start solving the problem this year.
Approximately 800,000 Coloradans are uninsured. More than 70% of the uninsured in this country are in working families. American consumers pay among the highest prices for prescription drugs in the world, and health care costs have gone up 80% in the last decade alone.
There is a better way to move forward. It is up to us to find and implement a workable solution to this problem. Our families, small businesses, and state and local governments cannot endure even one more decade like the last. We must do better.
