INDIANAPOLIS — Groups on both sides of the health care overhaul debate are keeping the pressure on Indiana’s congressmen as the vote on the proposed $940 billion federal reform bill that targets the issue nears.
Both supporters and opponents of health care reform are especially focused on those state lawmakers who say they haven’t decided how they will vote. Hundreds of people turned out Thursday for events stretching from South Bend to Evansville.
Outside 2nd District Rep. Joe Donnelly’s Logansport office, a group of people spent the afternoon holding signs which urged the congressman to vote against the bill.
“As Americans, we’re fortunate to have the right to voice our positions on every issue,” the Democrat told the Pharos-Tribune Thursday afternoon. “I’m pleased the folks in north central Indiana have taken the opportunity to have their opinions heard on this important issue, and I thank them for engaging their government.”
Last week, he told the Kokomo Tribune that he supports health insurance because there is a need to “level the playing field” between families and insurance companies.
“But if I’m asked to vote on the Senate health-care reform bill as is, I will vote no,” he said. “The process over the past few months has been frustrating, including the cutting of unacceptable special deals to assure a few senators’ votes. Also, the Senate version of health-care reform does not meet my standards for assuring that no federal funds are used for abortion-related services.”
Calls to Donnelly’s Washington office overwhelmed the phone system. So many calls were placed that callers were unable to leave voicemails.
Meanwhile in South Bend, protesters of the plan outnumbered supporters as about 200 people gathered outside Donnelley’s office.
Protesters from both sides held signs and shouted loudly, trying to drown each other out as motorists honked their horns in support, the South Bend Tribune reported.
Donnelly and fellow Democrats Brad Ellsworth and Baron Hill are the only ones among Indiana’s nine congressmen who are undecided on the bill. All four Republican congressmen are oppose the measure.
About 200 bill supporters gathered in Indianapolis. They lined the street in front of Democratic Rep. Andre Carson’s district office, carrying flags and signs and chanting pro-overhaul slogans.
Gracin Carpenter, who has been unemployed for almost three years was at the rally Thursday supporting the bill. He said his wife is on Social Security and doesn’t have decent health care, and that the odds are not good for him should he become ill under the current system.
“We depend on the government, and they’re not really fulfilling their promises,” said Carpenter, 55. “I have no health care whatsoever. So, it’s either Wishard hospital, or the mortuary. That’s basically the bottom line.”
Jeremy Weidner, 31, was also at the rally to support the bill. Weidner, who was with his wife and two young sons, said his family particularly likes the bill’s provision for coverage of pre-existing conditions. He said his 4-year-old son, Owen, was denied insurance coverage because of his asthma.
“He’s got that the rest of his life,” Weidner said. “He’ll never be able to get his own health care plan until he has a job.”
About 15 people opposed to the bill stood in a parking lot next to the support rally. The group delivered a letter to Carson’s office asking him to reconsider his support for the bill.
Michelle Dessauer, 41, a mother of four, held a sign to show her opposition. She said one of her children has special needs and would be covered under the pre-existing conditions provision, but that health care reform still wouldn’t be the right thing for her children or the country.
“My three other children are not going to burden that bill for the rest of their lives,” Dessauer said.
In Evansville, anti-abortion groups opposed to the bill’s attached abortion provision planned to target Rep. Brad Ellsworth.
The 10-year plan would provide coverage to 32 million people now uninsured through a combination of tax credits for middle class households and an expansion of the Medicaid program for low income people. Release of the legislation later Thursday sets the stage for a Sunday House vote. Democrats have already signaled they plan to go it alone, without Republican support.
For Dessauer, the biggest concern is that the decision process is going too fast, and without enough consideration for future effects.
“It just infuriates me that people over there don’t understand what this bill is,” she said, pointing to the supporters across the lot. “People don’t understand the cost of this bill, and the implications down the road for American families ... They’re looking at what’s being done tomorrow, not five, 10 years from now.”
Associate editor John Dempsey contributed to this report.
