New Hampshire 4-3-2007 Meeting on Health Care

Community Meeting about Health Care - first of two held in April 2007 by Barack Obama

You can hear both firmness and emotion in the voices of these Americans who are clearly educated about single-payer. Or you can see their words in the meeting excerpts, below, and get a sense for how solidly the meeting participants support single-payer.

• Senator Barack Obama initiated the meeting, conducted 3 April 2007 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
• The video was available at a Barack Obama website page for just a couple of weeks after the meeting, after which it was removed. As far as I know, the video has never been made available again. One person did make an excerpt while it was still available, as follows:

See associated transcript excerpts and an audio are below.

69:00 minutes into the meeting: In some ways there’s been kind of a secret kept from the American people and it keeps coming back. …

Listen to the audio … following … the lady starts speaking 30 seconds into the audio (and video)

What all these stories add up to … that the kind of system we have is actually rationing our health care …
— is actually rationing who lives and dies
— is actually rationing who has to go through financial ruin …

This is a consequence of a for-profit health care system. … — clapping — You are paying the middle-man for what should be just between the patient and the system …

People get worried about rationing … We HAVE the rationing; it’s not explicit, but it’s there all the time (with additional clear and passionately stated comments.)

(same citizen) — at 71:30 minutes ( one hour and 11:30 ) A single-payer system would not have anywhere near that amount of rationing. — clapping —

• The plea that we’re done telling about our individual problems (stories) is at 63:00 minutes in the excerpts below.
• The pleas that we remove profit from our health care is at 25:15 minutes, 63:00 minutes, and 69:00 minutes (above).

Almost All of Meeting was Single-Payer As per Citizen Input

• As reported April 4 by the Associated Press: “… his (Barack Obama’s) audience Tuesday was almost single-mindedly focused on a single-payer system.”
• “”What was interesting to me was the disproportionate number of people who spoke for universal health care,” Obama said. Seacoast

Obama Requirement of a Mandate from Voters

• After the April 3 meeting he made it clear that he requires citizens to act, as strongly stated to a local reporter
  • “I want to be held accountable for establishing a universal health care plan by the end of my first term, but I have to insist on the voters rallying for this change,” Obama said following the two-and-a-half-hour meeting with local residents. “When I take office, I have to feel I have a mandate for change.” (bolding added) – Seacoastonline
• Due to the meeting being almost “single-mindedly focused on … single-payer,” and due to Obama describing that focus to Seacoast as “universal health care”, he equated the two. Thus, his use of the words ‘insist’ and ‘mandate,’ Senator Obama expressed a definite requirement for voters’ action, such as his suggestion, which follows, about letter-writing as a way to influence health care policy.
• Summary: if citizens want single-payer as the health care policy, then citizens must establish the mandate for it, such as via Obama’s letter-writing suggestion.

Obama Tip (Suggestion) for How Voters Establish a Mandate

• Barack Obama’s tip on influencing Congress is at 65-67 minutes in the excerpts below.
• He defined specifically what citizens can do to establish a mandate for change: write one thousand to two thousand (personally-composed) letters in each U.S. Congressional district to their U.S. Representative.

Summary: Citizens Strongly Support Single-Payer National Health Insurance

As the Associated Press and Senator Obama indicated above, and as documented below in this web page, the meeting participants spoke with strong support for single-payer national health insurance. They demonstrated solid knowledge and expectations for the future regarding the need to implement single-payer. Also, they were given solid audience support via the multiple occurrences of spontaneous clapping when someone there made either a direct or indirect reference to single-payer health insurance.

Meeting Excerpts in Support of Single-Payer National Health Insurance

Below are excerpts from the April 4 meeting that involved eight occurrences of spontaneous clapping by the audience, noted by — clapping —.

The times are the length of time into the meeting, as seen on the video.

Citizen L.M. – at 25:15 minutes

I have to tell you … the most efficient out of everything we’re working with: the Medicare System. — I know what I’m getting … I know what I’m paying for … It’s simple There’s no secrets …

I am hoping … I just wanted to say: I don’t want more competition.

I don’t want to see more insurance plans. — clapping — I’m comparing apples to oranges. When there are health issues happening in the family, I don’t have time to be looking and comparing plans that are apples and oranges among 10 different plans. … it’s confusing …

Citizen N.B. – at 34:00 minutes

I think the rhetoric needs to change. We need to be provided health care!

People say to me: what do you mean you want single-payer universal health care that will follow you from wherever you go, whatever job you have?

The first thing they say is: where are we going to get the money to pay for it?

Where are we getting the hundreds of billions to stay in Iraq? — clapping —

Isn’t it worth it for this country to have healthy citizens? …

… “Are you willing to go forward and help us so that we have a healthy country again?”

Citizen A.H. – at 55:30 minutes

I feel that the government has a responsibility. “When you can find $80 billion … to kill people, you ought to be able to find some money to let people live.” — clapping —

Citizen J.M. – at 58:00 minutes

Listen to the audio … following …

“What we really need is a single-payer service.” — clapping —

We don’t need HMO’s feeding at the trough of our money.

(She criticized U.S. Representative Ron Wyden’s bill) – We would continue to have HMO’s. We would still have these elaborate administrative costs. And we would be paying far more than we really have to

Citizen L.B. – at 63:00 minutes –
Listen to the audio … following …

… it seems to be more of a values issue to me than anything else.

How many years have we been talking about this? …

You don’t need to hear more about people’s individual problems …

I’m sure they’ve been talked about in so many cities and so many communities for years…

I think it comes down to: does our country have values about having equity in people’s lives? …

(When) I pay a $20 co-pay at the doctor (office), I always think of those people who … have to make hard choices … about whether they pay the bill for that or don’t go at all. Their life is no less valuable than mine. I think that we just don’t care enough as a country to make this hard choice …

It’s the profits, the profits, the profits …

I am very skeptical that with you in office or anybody in office that this is (going to) change… because there’s such a strong lobby out there.

And how many more years can we talk about the broken system?

———- tip below on voters establishing a change of health care policy ———-

Obama – at 65-67 minutes

Listen to the audio … following …

“… I don’t want people to lose confidence about the capacity to change how government operates …

In a Congressional District if you have a thousand people or a couple of thousand people writing letters I promise you that Congressman or woman pays a lot of attention. They really do.

Of course, you’ve got to have a thousand or two thousand people writing letters in every Congressional District or at least in a majority of the Congressional Districts in order to actually implement policy.”

———- tip above on voters establishing a change of health care policy ———-

Citizen – at 69:00 minutes

This transcript is above.

Dr. R. S. – at 85:00 minutes

Would you be willing to sit down with public health officials in other countries like Canada and Europe?

Dr. T. C. – member of PNHP – at 90:00 minutes < — clapping — when Dr. C. started >

(the PNHP proposal for single-payer) solves all of these issues

No co-pays, no deductibles; No pre-existing conditions … 8% employer tax … 3% of income tax

— clapping — when Dr. C. finished

FYI — This meeting was the first of two meetings initiated by Senator Obama. An analysis of the second community meeting on health care in Iowa on April 5 is also available.