National health care reform controversy converges on Jackson

JACKSON — The national debate over health care reform came to a head on Thursday in the city that gave birth to the Republican Party 155 years ago as health care reform protesters met counter-protesters outside the district office of Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer.

At 3:30 p.m., hundreds of supporters of health care reform, estimated by the Jackson Police Department to be between 400 and 500 people, descended on the congressman’s office, chanting “What do we want? Health care! When do we want it? Now!”

No major violence, arrests or incidents were reported as a result of the dueling protests.

A group of five protesters stood across the street with signs accusing Schauer of being a tool of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and wanting to give illegal aliens health care at taxpayer expense.

An hour later, the group opposing health care reform grew to about 100 people. They carried hand made signs with statements like “Say No to All Obama Plans” and “abortion is not health care.”

For Nena Obits, 62, and Nancy Cooper, 71, both of Jackson, the health care debate takes on a very serious personal angle.

Obits said that under her private retirement insurance plan, she paid $86 for her annual mammogram last year. This year she paid $186 for the procedure.

For Cooper, her daughter, married to an Australian, had to leave the country to give birth to both of her children. The reason? Neither Cooper’s daughter nor her husband, who were both employed full time, had access to health insurance in the United States.

So what does health care reform look like to Obits?

“That means that we get health care policies that can take care of everyone, lower costs and create less profit for the big fat insurance companies,” Obits said.

“I am afraid of the bankruptcy issues because of health concerns, or people dying because they couldn’t afford the care,” Cooper said.

Obits had a message for those opposed to reform who call it “socialism.”

“Most don’t know we already have a lot of socialism,” she said. She ticked off education, Medicare, fire and police departments as examples.

Cooper agreed: “We have to have those things.”

“Those wackos need to calm down and find out what’s going on,” Obits said of those opposed to reform.

Meanwhile, across the street from Obits and Cooper were Tom Slater, 74, and Dave Carlson, 71. The Jackson residents said they oppose any health care reform plans.

“My concern is this is throwing the baby out with the bath water,” said Carlson. He said that only 12 to 13 million people could not afford insurance and that hospitals all had programs to take care of those people. “The system needs to be improved.”

Slater was wearing a black ribbon with the word America on a blue ribbon across it he said to signify the death of America.

“I think we are going away from what our Founding Fathers wanted and towards a fascistic government,” Slater said, stressing his opposition to health care reform.

Both men said they were proud Republicans, and cast ballots for John McCain in November, and George W. Bush the two previous elections. Neither man had read the health care reform bill, which clocks in at more than a thousand pages and looks like a telephone book.

“I have read a synopsis and excerpts,” Carlson said. He later said an online analysis of the bill he read had been sent to him by a friend who works in the insurance industry.

Schauer, a freshman lawmaker from Battle Creek, said earlier in the morning at an invitation only event for seniors in Eaton County that he had not yet decided to support the pending legislation. He reiterated that statement to supporters outside his office.

He said his support or opposition of the plan will come down to his priorities for fixing the “broken” health care system. Those priorities include everyone being covered, being deficit neutral, bringing down costs and being transparent and understandable.

“This may be the greatest moral issue of our time,” Schauer told the Delta Township crowd.