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Maffei Gets an Earful on Healthcare Reform
Photos and story by Louise Hoffman Broach | Wayuga Editor
Wednesday, August 19 2009
 Dan Maffei addresses a room of nearly 150 about healthcare reform at the Newark Municipal Building Aug. 14.
 David Gwynn, who has a house in Fair Haven and owns a financial planning business in Phelps, told Maffei the federal government has a poor track record of managing programs such as Social Security and believes the same will be true about healthcare.
NEWARK - For those at Congressman Dan Maffei’s town hall meeting on healthcare reform Aug. 15, it was all about the money.
Ruth Ann Ron, a small business owner from Walworth, spoke for many people when she said that health care reform that would ensure everyone had coverage might be a good idea, but it was one that the American public, most of whom already have insurance, could not afford.
“In my business, if we can’t pay for something, we can’t pay for something,” she said. “If we can’t pay for this (health care) bill, then there is no bill.”
Neither she, nor many others who packed the meeting room on the building’s second floor, were convinced when Maffei said the bill would be revenue neutral.
So many people showed up for the town hall meeting that Maffei had to hold two, the second one more intimate in the Newark Municipal Building’s courtroom with about 60 people. The first meeting had more than 125 in attendance. Not everyone there was from Wayne County, however. Several of the people who spoke had traveled from the Rochester area, or from western Onondaga County, although Maffei held a similar meeting there earlier in the summer.
Most of the people at the meetings, held in the most conservative part of the Democrat’s congressional district, were not in support of the proposed American Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009.
Sam LaFranco of Webster, a retired Monroe County employee and a U.S. military veteran, said was totally opposed to the act and wanted to know “where’s the money going to come from?”
But Maffei, who was sometimes booed by the crowd, stuck to his position, that a public option is necessary because the existing safety net of emergency room care when there is no other choice, is too expensive, and that the public option would not be even more of a financial drain. However, he said he has not made up his mind about specific parts of the legislation .
He also said the public options gives people choices, and people who don’t think it’s a good choice don’t have to exercise the option.
Mike Cook of Palmyra said he would like to have that option. Even with a four-year college degree he can’t afford health care on the salary from his fast food management job, although his employer would pay part of the cost.
A sheet about health care that Maffei made available before the meeting sought to dispel some of the myths surrounding the proposed American Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. Some of them included a mandate for end of life care and euthanasia, that health care will be rationed, that a government will determine benefits and care people will receive and that illegal immigrants will have access to the public option and that the government will have access to people’s financial records and bank accounts.
Many of the questions weren’t limited to health care, but a general skepticism about how the government runs other programs.
“We have a great deal of distrust for the government,” said David Gwynn of Phelps, a financial planner who also has a home in Fair Haven. He said the divisiveness in the country starts in the government and is driven by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Schumer and warned Maffei, as a new congressman, to remain an independent thinker and not get sucked in by Democratic hyperbole.
Pelosi, Reed and Schumer are a good argument for term limits, Gwynn said, saying that they only serve themselves..
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Posted: Wednesday, August 19, 2009
By: Kathy Malone, klmalone1@gmail.com
Subject: Photo Caption - Maffei's Town Hall Meeting
Although David Gwynn did speak at this meeting in Newark, the gentleman standing as shown in this photo is not Mr. Gwynn.
Posted: Thursday, August 20, 2009
By: Evan
Subject: Mike Cook the fast-food mgr qualifies for VA Benefits!
Mike Cook said he was a veteran and yet he doesn't have VA benefits? When he gave the weepy story of the time his wife was driving and he felt like he was going to "pass out" and begged her not to call an ambulance because they couldn't afford it one questions the truthfulness. A member of the audience held up his VA card people realized Mr.Cook was a fraud. He either isn't what he says he is or he doesn't qualify. Why isn't he utilizing "Healthy NY" or "Child Health Plus"? Does he earn too much? Is he choosing NOT to insure so he can have a few extra bucks in his pocket? Get ready, Mr. Cook, because IF govt healthcare is rammed through against the wishes of MOST Americans, you'll have precious little in that paycheck, IF you even have a job.
Knowledge is power: go to
www.notsosure.org and
www.joinpatientsfirst.com
http://newt.s3.amazonaws.com/public/Health_Care_Bill_Amendments.pdf
http://www.healthtransformation.net/cs/whats_in_the_bill
Or how about Raum Emanuel's brother Dr.Ezekiel Emanuel's "complete lives system" Dept. of Ethics
http://www.ncpa.org/pdfs/PIIS0140673609601379.pdf
Wake up, people!!
Posted: Friday, August 21, 2009
By: Jeff Hayes
Subject: Obamacare
Maybe one of Obama's death panels will decide who rides, or doesn't ride, in an ambulance. Or, who gets medicine, or who doesn't. Or, who lives, and who doesn't. Maffei and his ilk sicken me.
Our guarantee of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness is in danger with the passage of the Obama Health Plan. We cannot let this happen to America.
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