This content was published: June 4, 2009. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
Health insurance reform is topic of town hall at Cascade
Photos and story by Dana Haynes
OK, this isn’t technically about the Legislature, but it is about politics.
We have Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont, former presidential candidate and former leader of the Democratic Party, coming to PCC’s Cascade Campus tomorrow, Friday, along with Congressman Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore.
They’re coming here to hold a town hall on health insurance reform. It is one of the goals of the Obama Administration to alter the way health insurance is handled in America. And Gov. Dean and Rep. Blumenauer are coming to hear what people think.
Health insurance now is private. One plan is to keep the private insurance in place and add a government-run alternative, like Medicare. That would force private insurers to compete with the public-sector option. This is known as the “public option.”
The other plan is to eliminate all of the private insurers and put everyone in the government plan. That’s call the “single payer” plan and resembles the health care that veterans receive through the Veterans Health Administration.
The event is sold out. We, alas, did not handling tickets for the event. Congressman Blumenauer’s group did that via a lottery. (I’m told they got 1,400-plus requests. Moriarty Auditorium seats, what, 240?)
We will have an overflow room in Terrell Hall, complete with a closed circuit audio and video from Moriarty. That will be first-come, first-served.
dana
About Dana Haynes
Dana Haynes, joined PCC in 2007 as the manager of the Office of Public Affairs, directing the college's media and government relations. Haynes spent the previous 20 years as a reporter, columnist and editor for Oregon newspapers, including ... more »