Brown Bag Lunch Vigil Reports

On Wednesday, February 17, Brown Bag Lunch Vigils took place in over 60 congressional districts. Here are just a few reports from vigil participants:

Dr. Ann Wilcox tells us: I wanted to follow-up our great Brown-Bag vigil at Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD) District Office on Weds. Thank you for joining us, at what I thought was a friendly but fruitful discussion. The e-mails of those who attended are above, so we can keep in touch. We will also send a thank-you letter to Rep. Edwards and her staff. As you recall, we spoke with Amanda Partington (amanda.partington@mail.house.gov) of Rep. Edwards’ district office.

As we discussed, Donna Edwards is supportive on our issues – supporting health care reform, opposing the war – but we must support and encourage our allies. Most of us signed up for her District newsletter, so we can keep more closely in touch.

Since the PDA Brown-Bag vigils are to be every third Weds, we agreed to vigil next month at the District Office of Rep. Chris Van Hollen (who may need to be “pushed”!). We will circulate more information, as that date gets closer – I see that he has an office in Rockville, which we might want to visit. (You can also sign up for Rep. Van Hollen’s e-mail newsletter, on the web-site.)

Jim Swarts reports on the BBLV in Rep. Louise Slaughter’s NY district: By the way, we had five PDAGV member (plus three children) attend our first BBLV at Congresswoman Louise Slaughter’s office yesterday when we were scheduled to meet with her District Director, Patricia Larke. Because Ms. Larke was aware we were coming she arranged for us to meet her in a conference room on a different floor. The building guards were alerted to divert us away from her office by asking if we were there for the Slaughter “meeting.” However, the big surprise was that after we started our presentation with Ms. Larke, Congresswoman Slaughter herself walked in to meet with us. We were able to engage her for over half an hour but never really got the any reality with her. She is such a sweet old girl who manages to say whatever you want to hear even if it isn’t true. She says she will vote for healthcare reform but she won’t sponsor the legislation. She claims she has voted against the wars and against every supplemental military appropriations bill (false) that has been presented. Then she went on to argue that she could vote against providing our fighting men and women the materials and equipment they need to protect themselves. Humm! Sounded like a lot of double talk to us. We told Ms. Larke we will be back next month, and hopefully in stronger numbers.

Zoltan Lewis, M.D., MPH writes: Yesterday during the BBLV we had an interesting half-hour conversation with Veronic Wong, legislative assistant to Darrell Issa, R-CA 49th District. Ms Wong covers health legislation for Mr. Issa. The “we” were six members of PDA North SD County PDA.

Mr Issa sponsored HR 3438 several months ago and Ms Wang admits it is not gaining any traction. Meanwhile, his bill to curb malpractice and it’s “defensive medicine” costs is attracting interest and his staff is now devoting their effort to push it.

Ms Wong specifically stated Mr Issa would not support a comprehensive health reform bill, but would “depart from majority-Republican positions” on small areas of health care reform such as limiting insurers’ ability to exclude people with pre-exisiting conditions or conditions based on gender differences.

The latter point seems to me to be exactly the point Congressman Massa is making in the email blast you sent out this morning. He, too, is seeking to pass new single bills.

I agree with the Three Tracks for Health Reform proposal and suggest we back off the Single-Payer rhetoric for now.

Ms. Wong admitted that there was very little in HR 3438 of any substance and called it a “concepts” bill. It doesn’t have any concepts. Mr. Issa’s “concepts” are included in his mailings to his constituents (added to the end of this report). Ms Wong states she is trying to get “think tanks” to put substantive policies into the bill, but thus far none have agreed to help. I think PDA should ask some congressman, like Mr. Massa, to contact Mr. Issa and see what “small issue” they could agree on. Perhaps some tort reform for some way to establish a “best practice” of physicians so there is not such geographic variation in non-beneficial medical treatments. The establishment of a Center for Comparative Effectiveness would be one step.

Mr. Issa is quite wealthy and is not one of the large number of Republican and Democratic congressmen who accepted money from the Health related corporations that spent over 1/2 trillion dollars in 2009 lobbying Congress.

I think PDA should begin to consider how to “split off from the herd” Republican congressment by finding what “small issue” health care reform they would support. Political reality is that large scale reform will not happen in 2010, and if Democratic rule in Congress is lost, not even before 2012.

I live in Mr Issa’s district and will try to continue the conversation started yesterday with his health legislative assistant.

What can we lose?

Mr. Issa’s concepts of Health Care Reform

Reforming America’s health care system is one of the most pressing challenges that this country must face and accomplish. The United States spends more than $2.2 trillion on health care annually, over 16% of GDP, and yet 45 million people do not have health coverage and the cost of health insurance is often prohibitively expensive. Finding better solutions to meeting Americans’ health care needs is critically important.

There are several priorities to consider when planning health care reform in the United States. First, the personal doctor-patient relationship must be protected. The federal government, should never be given the power to interfere with that relationship. The ability to choose one’s own doctor is a vital component to quality care.

Second, timely access to quality treatment should be maintained. In the government run health care systems of countries such as Canada or England, it can often take months before even a simple test, such as an MRI, is administered. Any plan for reform must ensure that both quality care and timely access are preserved. Waiting weeks for a critical test is absolutely unacceptable, because delayed care equals denied care.

Finally, our health care system should never be taken over by the government. A government takeover of health care would lead to politicians and bureaucrats in Washington making your health decisions for you. They could decide that you were too old for a treatment or that something was too expensive and deny your eligibility.

By having the ability to choose their provider and to choose which coverage to purchase, Americans currently have access to the newest and best medicines. Seventy-five percent of all the new drugs approved worldwide are available in the United States, making us the first country to get the latest treatments. Furthermore, unlike the government, the private health industry has a proven track record of developing needed new drugs and designing and implementing the newest technology and techniques.

As the debate on health care reform moves forward, I will continue to support reform efforts that focus on the patient, on increased access to and options for care, and on eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in the current system.

Report on BBLV in CA-50 (Solana Beach/San Diego County)

With thanks to Arleen Garcia-Herbst for sharing her notes with me for the following summary. Photos of the BBLV were contributed by PDA- endorsed candidate, Tracy Emblem, and are attached.

Martha Sullivan
PDA member and
Vice Chair, North Area
San Diego County Democratic Party

On Wednesday, February 17, 2010, Progressive Democrats of America
(PDA) members held over 62 Brown Bag Lunch Vigils (BBLV) across the country, three of which were held in San Diego County. One was at Rep.
Susan Davis’s (CA-53, D) office, another at Rep. Darrell Issa’s (CA-49, R) office in Vista, and the third was held at Rep. Brian Bilbray’s (CA-50, R) office in Solana Beach. Martha Sullivan organized the BBLV at Bilbray’s office, even though the Congressman was not available to attend the BBLV and his office was unable to schedule an appointment with a representative.

Fourteen constituents attended the BBLV and occupied Bilbray’s office lobby for about an hour. Steve Danon, Bilbray’s Chief of Staff, came out early on and fielded questions from the concerned group focused on “Healthcare, Not Warfare”, a PDA campaign to focus attention on the fact that nearly one in six Americans has no health insurance. Millions are losing their homes as the gap between rich and poor widens. Meanwhile the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan drain our resources and overburden our budget, while raising the levels of violence in regions traumatized by war.

PDA members call on President Obama and members of Congress like Bilbray to support H.R. 2404, calling for an exit strategy from Afghanistan, and H.R. 3699, prohibiting any increase in the number of members of the United States Armed Forces serving in Afghanistan, as well as to enact substantive healthcare reform, which guarantees comprehensive publicly-funded, privately-delivered healthcare for everyone in the U.S. Martha Sullivan presented Steve Danon with a letter signed by all the BBLV participants to Rep. Bilbray, calling upon him to commit to redirecting wasteful and unnecessary military spending to meet human needs, beginning with expanded and improved Medicare for All, and committing to continuing the BBLV on the third Wednesday of each month until such redirections happen. The BBLV participants also presented Danon with one of their Brown Bag Lunches, containing a peanut butter & jelly sandwich and a juicebox, adorned with a “Healthcare Not Warfare!” sticker.

One unemployed PDA member, Linda Sanders, called on Bilbray to give up his health care until all Americans have it. She also questioned why Americans should subsidize his health care through taxes, while they themselves don’t have any. Danon responded that Bilbray supports the use of San Diego County Medical Services, which Sullivan noted has very tough eligibility requirements to receive medical assistance.

Another BBLV participant, Nova Morgan, said she was tired of partisan politics and legislative gridlock from both parties surrounding this issue. She called on Bilbray to represent all people in the district, not just conservative Republicans, when working on health care. Danon responded that Bilbray has held six health care town halls in the district to listen to constituent concerns on the issue, of which Morgan noted she’d attended several. BBLV participant and teacher, Evelyn Thomas, called upon Danon to reach out to more of the 50th Congressional District’s diverse constituents, including working people, the unemployed and those without health insurance, by hosting them in locations and on days/times accessible to these constituencies.

Asked if Bilbray will attend President Obama’s healthcare summit next week, Danon explained that Bilbray is not a ranking member of the committees attending Obama’s health care summit next week and so cannot attend. However, Danon asserted that Bilbray supports the President’s healthcare summit, contrary to his party leadership, and has talked to his colleagues individually and on the House floor about the issue.

PDA member, Dave Keeler, stated that there is a need to reduce military spending to support health care. Danon noted that Bilbray is looking into cuts in military spending to reduce the budget deficit, and asserted that everything was on the table. He noted that Bilbray’s concern is how to sustain the quality of care provided by Medicare currently and pay for it because Bilbray does not support cuts in Medicare to reduce the budget deficit. Bilbray sees Medicare as a social contract with people paying into it currently, similar to the one the government has to care for veteran’s after they complete their military service. Sullivan asked if Bilbray was open to lowering the eligibility age for Medicare, but Steve admitted he hadn’t spoken to Bilbray on the issue.

Danon asserted that America needs massive insurance reform. BBLV participant Morgan stated that all Americans need to make sacrifices across the board, including insurance company profits. Danon suggested that medical tort reform and insurance reform are needed and are solutions Bilbray is looking into. Sullivan noted that a public option saves more money that tort reform. However, Danon stated that Bilbray does not support single payer or a public option.

Danon asked Gary Kline, Bilbray’s consultant on healthcare, to join the BBLV discussion in the lobby and he fielded additional questions from the group. He opined that Medicare is the largest denier of medical services, there are many procedures it won’t cover, doctor payments are one third less, and that Medicare for All may not be the best solution to the health care crisis. BBLV participant and retired nurse, Andrea Seavey, told Kline that in her experience, doctors and patients alike are generally very satisfied with Medicare.

Tracy Emblem, a PDA endorsed candidate running against Bilbray in 2010, protested outside the office with several other BBLV participants. Tracy commented that her family is one of the 700,000 Anthem Blue Cross members who are self ensured and are getting a steep premium increase. She told those in attendance, “We need to suspend Congress’
health care insurance until Congress passes fair and equitable health care reform with true cost containment.”