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Citizens rally on health care bill
Around 150 people gathered in Hudson’s Seventh Street Park Wednesday in support of health care reform. Many held signs that read “Public Option Now,” “We Can’t Afford to Wait” and “Health Care for America Now,” while speakers told personal stories of their adverse dealings with health insurance companies and what they believe should be done to fix the system.
“We have to get the public option,” said one of the speakers, Teresa Barensfeld, a small business owner in Chatham.
She told of how over the years as insurance premiums went up, she would have todrop non-mandated options, such as vision, from her employees’ plans and of how their wages were affected by ever increasing premiums because so much of the businesses money went towards health insurance.
The rally, part of a series of events across the country organized by MoveOn.org Political Action, comes in the midst of a health care debate raging in Washington and across the country. The possible inclusion of a public option, a new government insurance program similar to Medicare, has become a flash point.
“The important thing is to get the public option. We have to fight,” said 17-year-old Jon Tenace, a senior at Chatham High School.
He believes that those on the left need to be more aggressive in dealing with conservative misrepresentation of the facts, he said, mentioning “death panels.”
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin stated last month that President Barack Obama’s health care plan would include death panels, which would “decide, based on a subjective judgment of (people’s) ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care.”
Obama called this a “myth” and explained that the rumor “arose out of a provision in one of the House bills that allowed Medicare to reimburse people for consultations about end-of-life care, setting up living wills, the availability of hospice, et cetera,” he stated Aug. 11.
“We’re always defending ourselves,” said Tenace. “We have to fight for what we believe. This is important.”
Jim Mulligan from Greenville spoke Wednesday as well.
He said that supporting a public option doesn’t make one a socialist or even necessarily liberal, but does make one a caretaker of the American dream.
As one candle lit the next, brief stories of people’s lives affected by the current health care system were read off. The accounts ranged from a woman with muscular dystrophy who couldn’t afford health insurance to a business owner who paid himself less than his employees so he could cover their insurance costs.
“These are real people,” said Karla Guererri, one of the event’s organizers. “These are real stories.”
Guererri, who resides in Albany and works in Hudson, is part of MoveOn.org Political Action, which is “a political action committee powered by 5 million progressive Americans,” according to the organization.
She said she has spent the last several months organizing and writing to legislators, including Congressman Scott Murphy, D-20th District.
“I’m here tonight to tell our elected officials it’s time for them to do what they promised and what the voters elected them to do.”
“We have to get the public option,” said one of the speakers, Teresa Barensfeld, a small business owner in Chatham.
She told of how over the years as insurance premiums went up, she would have todrop non-mandated options, such as vision, from her employees’ plans and of how their wages were affected by ever increasing premiums because so much of the businesses money went towards health insurance.
The rally, part of a series of events across the country organized by MoveOn.org Political Action, comes in the midst of a health care debate raging in Washington and across the country. The possible inclusion of a public option, a new government insurance program similar to Medicare, has become a flash point.
“The important thing is to get the public option. We have to fight,” said 17-year-old Jon Tenace, a senior at Chatham High School.
He believes that those on the left need to be more aggressive in dealing with conservative misrepresentation of the facts, he said, mentioning “death panels.”
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin stated last month that President Barack Obama’s health care plan would include death panels, which would “decide, based on a subjective judgment of (people’s) ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care.”
Obama called this a “myth” and explained that the rumor “arose out of a provision in one of the House bills that allowed Medicare to reimburse people for consultations about end-of-life care, setting up living wills, the availability of hospice, et cetera,” he stated Aug. 11.
“We’re always defending ourselves,” said Tenace. “We have to fight for what we believe. This is important.”
Jim Mulligan from Greenville spoke Wednesday as well.
He said that supporting a public option doesn’t make one a socialist or even necessarily liberal, but does make one a caretaker of the American dream.
As one candle lit the next, brief stories of people’s lives affected by the current health care system were read off. The accounts ranged from a woman with muscular dystrophy who couldn’t afford health insurance to a business owner who paid himself less than his employees so he could cover their insurance costs.
“These are real people,” said Karla Guererri, one of the event’s organizers. “These are real stories.”
Guererri, who resides in Albany and works in Hudson, is part of MoveOn.org Political Action, which is “a political action committee powered by 5 million progressive Americans,” according to the organization.
She said she has spent the last several months organizing and writing to legislators, including Congressman Scott Murphy, D-20th District.
“I’m here tonight to tell our elected officials it’s time for them to do what they promised and what the voters elected them to do.”
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