Health care reform protesters plan bus tour : MIKE DENNISON
By: Health Insurance
Submitted: 2009-08-09 23:10:48 | Word Count: 1002
When President Barack Obama visits Bozeman next week, the local arm of a national group opposing health care reforms before Congress will be there as well, organizing a protest rally.
The rally and tour, complete with a bus featuring a red hand and big lettering that says “Hands off my health care,” is part of a national effort organized by Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a conservative group with ties to the Republican Party.
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In Montana, the effort is being coordinated by Jake Eaton, former executive director of the Montana Republican Party.
“We’re organizing people against these (health care) proposals because they’re bad for America,” he said Friday. “Montanans are coming out and speaking their mind and making their voices heard.”
The bus tour, formally led by an AFP project called Patients First, is blasting the proposed reforms as a “government takeover” of health care that will lead to “government bureaucrats” making decisions about people’s care.
Eaton said AFP officials and some local people will be on the bus, which will stop for rallies in a dozen towns.
Obama is coming to Bozeman next Friday, and is expected to conduct a town hall-style meeting to promote health care reforms that aim to expand coverage to the millions of Americans without health insurance, reform insurance markets, reduce health care costs and gradually overhaul how health care is delivered.
The White House confirmed Friday that Obama will be visiting Bozeman, but further details of his visit haven’t been released.
Patients First already had been planning a Montana bus tour to rally opposition to health care reforms, and readjusted its schedule to make a stop in Bozeman to correspond with the president’s visit, Eaton said.
The four-day bus tour from Friday through next Monday, Aug. 17, has scheduled stops in Billings, Helena, Butte, Great Falls, Roundup, Lewistown, Forsyth, Dillon, Whitehall and Miles City.
It’s part of a $1 million effort by Patients First, which is doing bus tours in 12 others states, said Abby Markham, a Patients First spokeswoman in Washington, D.C.
In the past week, health-reform opponents have been organizing rallies and packing meetings held by members of Congress, who are home during an extended late-summer break.
Democratic congressional leaders and others are labeling the opponents as front groups for corporate opponents of reform, and say the organizers are spreading misinformation about the proposed reforms.
Americans for Prosperity, which doesn’t publicly reveal its donors, has received substantial funding from the Koch Family Foundations, according to published reports. The foundation is funded by Koch Industries, a large, privately owned oil-and-gas company.
AFP has fought smoking bans in Texas and last year led a “Hot Air Tour,” which campaigned against what it called “global warming alarmism.”
Markham said neither the Koch Family Foundations nor Koch family members have given money to Patients First, which is being funded by “thousands of patriotic Americans who support our efforts to not let government get between patients and doctors.”
Eaton said protest leaders will be speaking against “the president’s insistence on a single-payer system,” the possible creation of a government-run health insurance plan to compete with private insurers, and proposed requirements that businesses help pay for health insurance for employees.
“Polls show the vast majority of Americans are against these proposals, not only because they cost too much, but because it will lead to the decline of quality of health care in America,” he said.
Obama is not advocating a “single-payer system,” which is government health insurance for all citizens. Some of the bills before Congress would require businesses to help fund health insurance, but exempt the smallest businesses from this mandate.
AFP’s Patients-First Bus Tour
Americans for Prosperity’s Patients First Bus Tour will hit the road next week, urging grassroots activists to speak out on behalf of patients and against a government takeover of health care.
“Montanans are fired up about health care, and the bus tour gives more people the opportunity to come out and get involved,” Abby Markham, spokesperson for Patients First’s Montana effort, said in a press release. “They’ve heard enough proposals from Washington that give government all the decision-making power. It is time for citizens to tell Congress to stop, turn around, and pursue real reforms that put patients first.”
The tour will run Aug. 14-17, visiting cities across Montana.
Citizens will be urged to call Montana’s delegation, visit their district offices, and sign the Patients First petition. The petition asks all members of Congress to oppose any legislation that imposes greater government control over health care and results in fewer choices for patients and their families. It can be viewed at www.JoinPatientsFirst.com.
“This trillion-dollar boondoggle would change everything about health care as we know it. Instead of patients and doctors making decisions, it would be government bureaucrats,” said Markham. “We’ve got to let lawmakers know that the American people simply don’t want a government takeover of their health care.”
- Friday, Aug. 14
Bozeman n Rally at President Obama’s visit n time and location to be announced
Billings n Veteran’s Park n 6 p.m.
- Saturday, Aug. 15
Roundup n Roundup City Park n 10 a.m.
Lewistown n Frank Day Park n 2 p.m.
Great Falls n Flag Hill Park n 6 p.m
- Sunday, Aug. 16
Helena n Women’s Park n 11 a.m.
Butte n Stodden Park n 3 p.m.
Dillon n Jaycee Park n 6 p.m.
- Monday, Aug. 17
Whitehall n Legion Avenue Park n noon
Bozeman n Bogert Park Pavilion n 6 p.m.
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