Burton discusses health care at town hall in Peru

Posted: Friday, August 28, 2009 12:00 am

Peter Adelsen Staff Writer padelsen@kokomoperspective.com | 0 comments

PERU - Hundreds turned out to show their health-care reform concerns to Congressman Dan Burton, R-5th District, Thursday at the Peru High School auditorium.

The majority of the crowd agreed with Burton's stance on health-care reform. Burton has long opposed government control of health care. Instead, he said he is in favor of medical savings accounts. He also said that he is in favor of medical tort reform and the majority of the crowd applauded him for that. He said that doctors cost about 25 percent of the total health care cost.

David Tharp of Kokomo said he does not agree with Burton's health care plan. He, instead, is in favor of the Democrats' plan.

"I support any comprehensive health care form that comes out of Washington needs to include a public health insurance option," he said. "It's the only way we can have a truly affordable plan that injects competition in the market and keeps health insurance completely honest and provides you a plan that you can take with you from job to job or to be able to use and enroll in so you aren't locked into your current employers based on the benefits that they provide.

"The public option is the cornerstone of reform efforts to help lower cost and inject competition and give people the choice and it works for folks who are uninsured peoples.

"The people over the age of 65 already have, in effect, the public option with Medicare and the public option does is allow each person to purchase a type of public insurance the same as the people over 65 have. If we really want to get health insurance costs under control, we've got to have a method where people can buy public insurance and the public health insurance grants that."

However, the presiding idea at the town hall was that the Democrat plan is not beneficial to the American people.

"I think people are going to get rationed on health care," said Dave Benzinger of Wabash. "I don't know why the American people can't learn from history. Look at Canada, look at the U.K. I have a daughter-in-law who has relatives that live in Ireland. They are asking her 'What are you Americans thinking by going with this plan?' That ought to tell people a lot right there. Why not look at the people that have it and see what we are going to get? Anyone who has their head out of the sand ought to see it."

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