Questions linger after town hall meeting

To the Editor:

On Sept. 18 I attended a town hall meeting in Lakefield held by our 2nd Congressional District representative, John Kline. I went there hoping to hear his plan for health care reform. I heard none.

I watched him throw the HR 3200 bill proposed by the Democrats onto the floor as he said, "We need to hit the reset button." However, I did hear Kline say there should be reform of our health care system, but little more.

Expecting that, I went prepared to ask my questions of the congressman.

A few of us raised our hands at first. The congressman's people selected the questioners.

I have no proof, but it seemed the majority were known and well-spoken Republican supporters. The liberals picked from the crowd seemed to be asking soft questions.

I did not get a chance to ask my question, but I think it is important enough for the people of the 2nd Congressional District to get an answer:

"Representative Kline, you do not trust that a government-run health care system would work. What makes you confident that the private sector will make any changes to our present system? It seems to me that if the private sector wanted changes, as you say they do, they could have done this long ago if they had tried harder or even cared. Just how long must we wait for these changes?" Would it be another 20 years or even 40 years?”

I also would have liked to ask this question:

"Why are health insurance companies so quiet on this issue? Oh sure they have many spokespersons (many of them paid), but no CEOs or board members come forth to propose remedies to the present predicament. Is it because they have no plan and simply prefer the status quo?"

Wouldn't it have been good for Kline to get a chance to answer these questions? Since he didn't, maybe readers would like to ask him these questions themselves.

Bill Habedank

Red Wing

Tags: opinion, letters, kline, habedank