If you missed the town hall on health care held by Assemblymember Alan Nakanishi don’t be worry; you didn’t miss much. Below is my summary posted to The Bayne of Blog and the Amador Democratic Party Website and picked up by California Progress Report.
by Randy Bayne
Chair, Amador Co. DCC
The Bayne of Blog
In a town hall meeting to discuss health care, Assemblymember Alan Nakanishi accused labor of killing health savings account legislation because “they care about the poor who can’t afford it.” By “it” he means health savings accounts, his pet solution to the health care crisis.
That was about the most substantive thing in an hour long town hall meeting attended by about 40 people in Jackson. Managing to avoid spending too much time on the advertised subject of the town hall, Nakanishi started with a lesson on how a bill becomes a law. As far as I can gather, he was trying to explain how hard it is to get legislation through the system. Granted, it isn’t an easy process, but neither should it be.
Copies of four bills on health care that Nakanishi is carrying in the special session were available, but only passing reference was made to them. These four are tailored to express the Republican opinion that health savings accounts are the solution to the health care crisis. This is when he blamed unions, working Californians, for the failure to pass health savings account legislation by saying, “they care about the poor who can’t afford it.”
That’s right, we do care, and proudly so, about the poor. How does a savings plan work for people who can’t afford to put food on the table or keep a roof over their head? Where do they find money to save for anything, much less for something as specific and horrendously expensive as health care? The problem with Republican lawmakers is that they don’t care about the poor.
Nakanishi’s summation on health care is, “Health care is a mess.”
In response to a question about the budget, “Why is the legislature spending more than it takes in?” Nakanishi launched into an explanation on how the budget is passed. It was a nice lesson, but didn’t answer the question.
That was chiefly how this town hall went. The hour flew by as Nakanishi, unable to answer the questions gave lessons on how bills become laws and how the state passes a budget. Nice lessons, little help.
I wish I had more to tell you, but there really was so little substance to this town hall that I’m left wondering why he even bothered.
There are two things I did learn. Actually, I already knew them, this just solidified that knowledge. 1) Republicans don’t really care about health care, and 2) Republicans don’t care about the poor. Put these together and it leads to a third observation; Republicans particularly don’t care about health care for the poor.
If they did care, they would work with, not against, Democrats to find a way to provide affordable and comprehensive health care for everyone instead of insisting on continued trust in what hasn’t worked — reliance on insurers and market forces.
And, thank you Mr. Nakanishi for recognizing that someone “cares about the poor who can’t afford” the ridiculous profits of the insurance industry.
1 Comment
December 17, 2007 at 8:11 am
Not only do the Republicans not seem to care much about health care for the poor, but not for the middle class or small business owners either.
Heck, why should any politician? They get a top-notch health care plan while in office and then get it for cheap when they are out. Guess who pays?
The poor slobs (read: middle class, small biz owners, etc.) who cannot afford it for themselves.
What a tragedy health care is in this country.