Town Hall With Sen. Murkowski

Lisa Murkowski will host a town-hall style meeting on health care this Saturday, Aug 29 from 10 AM-noon at the Soldotna Sports Center on K-Beach Road.

Murkowski released this statement on the meeting:

I have heard from thousands of Alaskans about the health care proposals currently being debated in Congress,” said Murkowski. “As a member of the Senate Health Committee, I voted against the Democrat bill that passed the committee last month. There were many problems with that bill, the biggest being the staggering cost – over $1 trillion dollars that would leave as many as 34 million people without coverage. Health care will be at the top of our agenda when Congress returns from recess in September and I want to meet with as many Alaskans as I can in August to hear their thoughts before returning to Washington.

What she doesn't address is the staggering costs of doing nothing - Medicare is facing a growing aging population, medicaid has been underfunded for years, and some 47 million Americans are currently without coverage. For those with insurance, we've seen copays grow and charges challenged.

A debate is needed and I just hope that this Saturday's debate is civil.

Ms. Murkowski rebuffed Sarah Palin's 'death panel' claim and called for all to stick to the facts. That's good advice, but as we all know you can spin anything by not only giving false information, but by conveniently leaving out information or by putting out misleading statements. Murkowski's opinion piece in the PC is an example.

She states that Medicare is broken - but leaves out that under the Bush Adminstration and the republican controlled congress (that she was a part of), they prohibited the government to negotiate for lower prices. In those 6 years, nothing was done to lower costs to taxpayers, but plenty was done to increase profits for private insurance companies. Murkowski notes that we don't buy a home without knowing the price. that's true, but it would sure be nice if that same sort of mentality went into questioning the need for the Iraq war which turned out to be a blank check for military industrials.

Let's hope we can avoid the socialism scares. If you are on medicare, medicaid, or a federal (including Lisa), state, borough or city employee, if you are a school district employee or a veteran or a native, you already receive some sort of 'socialized' medical coverage. If you are a taxpayer, you are already funding all of this and more. On the peninsula, taxpayers cover about $600,000 in unpaid/not covered medical bills for the 2 borough hospitals.

I encourage all those who intend to attend to do some homework beforehand. Get your news from more than one source. Learn the concern that the other side has. Paying for coverage IS a problem. Having millions without coverage is also unacceptable.

And how about walking or biking to the Sports Center? Do something healthy for yourself if you can. Just leaves your guns at home.