Feb 6th Shoreview town hall meeting recap

Posted on 17. Feb, 2010 by Chris Dohman in State Legislature, US Congress

A clash of ideals and philosophy is often the case when it comes to politics and February 6th at a Shoreview town hall meeting hosted by State Representatvice Paul Gardner HD53A and State Senator Sandy Rummel SD53 was no different. Congresswoman Betty McCollum MN04 and Brock Nelson, CEO of Regions Hospital were also present and helped kick off the two hour plus meeting.

Congresswoman McCollum’s presence alone seemed to get people riled up over the federal health care bills and government spending. Although all of Shoreview’s State and Federal Representatives and Senators are DFL, the crowd of over 40 people had conservative views well represented. These folks were eager to vent their frustrations over government spending.

The meeting was filled with mostly highlights but it had a few points with some people talking over people or interrupting. Cool heads prevailed though and people were able to voice their concerns.

This video is courtesy of CTV North Suburbs and Video Producer Ben Hanson who I want to thank for the video coverage of the event.

Con. McCollum was only available for the first half  hour or so of the meeting. She focused on health care and her quest to hold health insurance companies accountable and transparent. She is fighting against low coverage caps, rescission of coverage, and pre existing condition loopholes that health insurance companies use to keep their costs to a minimum. McCollum also spoke advocating for use of best practices in health care and geographic equity in federal funding.

Here is a sampling of citizen questions and concerns that were raised in Con. McCollum’s time at the meeting. The following bullet points are paraphrased and not quoted.

• Why isn’t Con. McCollum at the forefront of opting in for the health insurance bill public option & same with other federal employees?
  • Con. McCollum indicated she would be eligible like anyone else. She would consider it if it passes. Con McCollum wishes they could have an honest debate and suppport a law where they would have end of life discussions.
• Addressing the health care issue  and reducing costs with a health care bill will help stimulate the economy and business by easing the health care costs businesses are struggling to cover now.
• Why does Congress insist on being a nanny for everyone? Why can’t we buy health insurance across state lines?
  • Con. McCollum agrees to open insurance across state lines as long as it comes with transparency, full disclosure & accountability and clear comparrisons of packages.
• Geographic disparities in Medicare funding on a national level needs to be fixed. People in Florida are getting more than double what people in Minnesota are getting.
• Congress should address cost saving processes and tort reform to help reduce the cost of health care. These are things that would bring support on both sides of the isle.

Brock Nelson, CEO of Regions Hospital explained to people that the hospital is not opposed to paying taxes but you must consider all of the uncompensated care they provide. He would like to see uncompensated care more evenly provided by the east metro hospitals. Right now Nelson said Regions provides more than the rest of them combined.

After Congresswoman McCollum had to leave, health care remained a hot topic but discussions also moved to the state budget, business climate, education and services for the disabled.

Cory Springhorn of The Cooperating Community Programs (CCP), who works with people with disabilities in home based settings and John Wayne Barker, Executive Director of Merrick, Inc. which empowers adults with disabilities through vocational and social opportunities talked about their services and the recent funding cuts they are facing. These discussions brought on some passionate and emotional personal stories involving disabled friends and family and social services many are in need of. The following is a sampling of the related discussions.

• Privately funded non-profits work. They can serve the needs and care for people in need. Consider an alternative to the way things are now because the way we are going now is bleeding us dry.
• Group homes and services provide the care for the disabled. These people are not here by choice looking for a handout. We can not cut the money for services like these.
• How are we going to care for the least and the lost? We made the decision to close down state hospitals and deinstitutionalize, moving to community based programs. Now this state is walking away from that compact.
• We can’t handle the costs as a business and individuals. People of the government are involved with good intentions but we can’t take from the public  treasury for this. If 50% of my money wasn’t going to the government I would have a lot more money to give for helping people.

Dr. Paul Stremick, Superintendent of the Centennial School District was also at the meeting and explained their situation. Many people think the schools got an increase of funds with the stimulus funds. That is not the case, these funds just replaced the funds the state cut. They are making cuts for the coming year. 77% of their budget goes to salaries and benefits and over half of the remaining budget goes to fixed costs like heat, electricity, gas and items they don’t really have a choice on.

Discussion from here stayed on education with this sampling of comments.

• Let the free market work for education not a government monopoly.
• Performance, efficiencies and outcome should be rewarded in education.
• Special education is mandated which can not be cut and it isn’t funded.
• A portion of the Para-professionals should be cut because many of them are not well used but they are well paid.
• One would like to invite the public to see the great job done in the classrooms by Para-professionals.
• Many of the children in the special education programs need one to one care. He does not feel that the work they do is well appreciated by the public.
• The United States educate all kids and they do not pick and choose. The U.S. kids do measure up to  those around the world. If we segregate the data by income the top 10% of the U.S. kids rank above the 10% of any other country and same with the middle income.
• It’s difficult for our kids to go to the U of M while kids from other countries are getting in because of special programs and incentives.

You can watch the entire video coverage of the meeting in the video above. Many issues and view points were brought forward by people which makes it a worthy watch for those interested in their government and community.

Tags: Betty McCollum, education, Feature, HD53A, health care, MN04, Paul Gardner, Sandy Rummel, SD53, social services, town hall meeting