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(Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is confident Health Care Reform overhaul will succeed. She discusses President Barack Obama’s push for health care reform with NBC’s David Gregory on “Meet the Press.”)
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Pres. Obama: "This debate is not a political game for these Americans, and they cannot afford to keep waiting for reform. We owe it to them to finally get it done – and to get it done this year. Thank you."
(Battle Lines are drawn over the HC Reform debate. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., discuss the battle in Congress over a Public Option health insurance plan.)
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N.C. a Crucible for Health Care Reform Debate
(Pres. Obama's visit this week is part of an intense push for swing votes in Congress. Foes of reform are active, too.)
RALEIGH -- President Barack Obama's trip to Raleigh on Wednesday is the latest indication of an intense, and unusual, political battle in the middle of summer in North Carolina -- the fight over Health-Care Reform.
Rallies, phone banks and door-to-door canvassing are under way, TV commercials blast on the airwaves, and petitions appear beside ripe tomatoes at farmers markets. It's July in a non-election year, but the political machinery is fully engaged, complete with letter-writing campaigns and statewide bus tours.
The flurry of activity comes at a key moment when Pres. Obama is trying to persuade Congress to pass his health-care plan by the end of the year. He had hoped versions would move through the House and Senate before the August recess.
Though the Health-Care Reform debate is national, it is particularly loud in North Carolina because of the concentration of moderate Democrats that both sides see as potentially persuadable, particularly freshman Sen. Kay Hagan.
The Tar Heel State is also the home of some major players in the health-care industry, including GlaxoSmithKline, one of the nation's largest pharmaceutical companies.
Moreover, North Carolina is now seen as one of the nation's newest battleground states, having gone for Pres. Obama last November after voting Republican in the previous seven elections.
One night last week at Raleigh's RBC Center, home of the Carolina Hurricanes hockey team, opponents were trying to fan opposition to Pres. Obama's health-care proposal, literally.
The 350 people who packed into the club room were given fans that bore a drawing of a hand and the slogan: "Hands Off My Health Care."
They heard speeches and watched videos comparing proposals by Pres. Obama and the Democrats to national health-care plans in England and Canada.
They were told to expect long waits to see doctors or undergo surgery, or even having "government bureaucrats" tell you whether you can have access to life-saving medicine. One video featured a news report from an Oregon TV station: A patient with advanced cancer was denied an experimental $4,000-per- month cancer drug but was told about the state's assisted suicide option law.
"Politicians want to control who lives and who dies," said Dallas Woodhouse, the head of the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a Raleigh-based conservative advocacy group.
Americans for Prosperity sponsored the event Tuesday and a similar one Wednesday at the Jesse Helms Center in Monroe. It also plans a bus tour across the state in August to generate opposition to Obama's proposal.
Participants were asked to focus their lobbying on Hagan and Democratic Congressmen Larry Kissell and Bob Etheridge, who are seen as on the fence.
The star of the event was Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, who was the GOP nominee for governor last year and who might run again in 2012.
The health-care system is indeed in crisis, McCrory said, but he stressed that a government-run system is not the answer.
"Have you ever gone to a DMV office lately?" McCrory said. "Can you imagine if that is how we distribute our medical needs in the future? It would be a disaster."
The event had the feel of a political rally. The state Democratic Party even dispatched a cameraman, known in political circles as a tracker, to record the proceedings.
Drug industry weighs in:
But it's not just conservative and Republican activists who have weighed in. Drug and insurance companies and other businesses in the health-care industry are seeking to take part in the debate here.
The drug industry has been running an advertising campaign aimed at influencing lawmakers and letting people know the importance of their work.
The stickiest NC Health Care Reform issues:
A look at where Health Care Reform is hitting the biggest snags for many NC citizens:
How to pay:
Covering nearly 50 million currently uninsured Americans will cost $1 trillion to $2 trillion over 10 years.
Lawmakers are frantically looking for ways to cut Medicare or raise new tax revenue to cover the cost.
Republicans say the overhaul should be financed mainly with savings, not taxes, even if it means delays in covering the uninsured, or helping fewer people.
Obama says the legislation will be fully paid for, and must not add to the deficit. But the head of the Congressional Budget Office, Peter Orszag, warns that the plans under consideration would do just that.
Mandate for Employers:
Both House and Senate Democrats are considering requiring employers to cover their workers. Businesses are strongly opposed to such an obligation.
Republicans want to offer tax credits to help small companies buy coverage, and they oppose a requirement.
Employer opposition to health insurance requirements helped bring down President Bill Clinton's health plan in the 1990s.
Public Option Plan:
Of all the divisive issues, Democrats' idea for a new government health plan to compete with private insurers has generated the most political passion.
Insurers, employers and congressional Republicans are adamantly opposed, saying the government would drive private insurers out of business. Democrats are just as strongly in favor of the idea, saying the insurance industry needs competition.
Pres. Obama's Town Hall Meeting:
President Barack Obama will hold a town-hall meeting on his health-care plan Wednesday in the Broughton High School gym, 723 St. Mary's St., in Raleigh.
Doors open at 9:30 a.m., and the program starts at 11:45 a.m. Tickets free but required; maximum of two per person.
Register by 4 p.m. today at www.whitehouse .gov/administration/RaleighTownHall- 7- 29- 09/ or by calling 919-856-3738. Leave a message with name, phone number and zip code.
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