Summer break brings health woes to US lawmakers (News Feature)

By Pat Reber Aug 8, 2009, 10:04 GMT

Washington - US lawmakers are edging their way into summer recess.

But instead of a nice relaxing time on the beach, many Democratic lawmakers are grappling with ever more hostile crowds of conservative protesters in their home districts over the Obama administration's health insurance reform inching its way through Washington.

Police interceded in at least two loud, raucous town hall meetings over recent days set up to explain the changes being proposed for US health insurance.

At a gathering addressed by Democratic Congressman John Dingell in Michigan, a younger man pushed a wheelchair with an elderly person, raised his fist and shouted in Dingell's face about what the reform would mean for the aged, according to television footage.

'This man would be given no care at all,' the protester yelled as police restrained him.

At issue is legislation designed to rein in spiralling costs and extend insurance to about 47 million people who lack coverage. The Democratic-controlled Congress, along with US President Barack Obama, have moved further along the road to much needed reform than any other attempt in recent decades - and with record speed of six months.

Obama is motivated not only by fiscal issues - the US spends about 16 per cent of gross domestic product on health care, more than any other industrialized country - but also by the personal experience of his mother, who died of cancer while fighting for insurance coverage of immense bills.

Republican politicians have been trying to exploit the uneasiness of many Americans over government involvement in the health system. They charge that Obama advocates a socialist solution that would deny health care to many and result in a form of euthanasia for the very sick.

Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh has whipped up public sentiment, comparing Obama to Nazi Germany.

'Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by dictate,' said Limbaugh, adding that Obama's health care symbol was 'damn close to a Nazi swastika.'

In his weekly radio message Saturday, Obama tried to dispel 'the outlandish rumours that reform will promote euthanasia ... or bring about a government takeover of health care.'

Obama noted that the current system 'works well for the insurance industry' but not very well for the uninsured, or for those who can't get coverage for pre-existing conditions.

'As we draw close to finalizing - and passing - real health insurance reform, the defenders of the status quo and political point-scorers in Washington are growing fiercer in their opposition,' he said.

Karen Jaroch, a housewife in Tampa, Florida, who organized a 'mob' to shout down one meeting, told CNN that she was not following any one central leader in her protests, but was inspired by 'the news.'

'Middle America feels disenfranchised. Our Congress people are rushing this through,' she said, adding that Obama was trying to rush through reform in less time than it took him to 'pick out a dog.'

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs has chided protesters for their militant, sometimes violent behaviour at the meetings.

'We can discuss these issues without being uncivilized,' he said. 'It's the same advice I give my six-year-old.'

Democratic Party leaders in the House of Representatives have hammered out a deal with a fiscally conservative faction within their own centre-left party. But the deal postpones any House vote on the health-care reforms until at least September.

Obama originally hoped both chambers would pass their initial versions of a health reform bill before Congress' summer recess.

Conservative 'Blue Dog' Democrats had opposed health reform because of its huge price tag, but went along because the compromise would shave an additional 100 billion dollars off the plan and bring its overall cost below 1 trillion dollars.