This last Saturday a few of us College Dems went over to Jackson for a health care town hall with Congressman Mark Schauer.  Rep. Schauer recently voted for HR 3962 and is getting a mix of praise and flack from his constituents for it.

The scene at Lily Mission Center, the church in which the town hall took place, wasn’t typical of the tea parties that we saw over the summer.  A good number of people from his constituency actually commended Rep. Schauer for supporting health care reform, with personal thank-yous and stories about why health care reform means so much to them.  However, there were many more people there who thought the opposite.  Though it wasn’t the flamboyant, nearly violent tea party scene, it was chilling to see so many people misinformed about health care reform.  Several of the right wingers were bound and determined to equate HR 3200 with a single payer, Canadian style health care system, even after Rep. Schauer explained the major differences between the two plans, stressing that he would not support a single payer system.  Many of the opponents of the bill kept murmuring “yeah right” and “I doubt he’s even read the bill” whenever Rep. Schauer answered questions or talked about the facts of the bill.   I really doubt that some of these staunch opponents to health care reform will ever be convinced, as they go as far as rejecting facts.  It made me want to laugh and cry at the same time.

The town hall was a real dose of reality for the College Dems that attended it.  Sure, the opponents to health care reform aren’t the majority in the country, but they are well mobilized and vocal.  It’s crucial that we in favor of health care reform make sure that it is well represented in public circles and not characterized by the false accusations of it being “Canadian health care” or “out to kill grandma.”

After the town hall was over, we talked to Rep. Schauer.  He truly believes in that a public option is essential to health care reform.  When asked if his stance would be a liability to him, because he represents a pretty conservative district, he replied that his fight for health care reform is not for his personal or political gain, but for the millions of Americans who need it.