Walden answers to residents for health care

May 10--ELGIN -- Rep. Greg Walden, R-Hood River, has been greeted by many friendly audiences in Union County since being elected to Congress in 1998. The audience Walden stepped before Monday in Elgin was not one of them.

Walden received a chilly welcome at a town hall in the auditorium of Stella Mayfield School. The congressman was jeered for his support and help in developing the controversial American Health Care Act passed by the House of Representatives last Thursday. The bill, now in the Senate, would dismantle key portions of former President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act.

Walden was peppered with tough questions about the health care plan by many in the audience of about 200 over the course of his 90-minute town hall.

"Mr. Walden, tell us why you are willing to destroy the health care of thousands of constituents," Bill Whitaker of La Grande said to the congressman.

Whitaker said thousands of people in Walden's congressional district will lose health insurance if the plan the House approved becomes law, due to Medicaid cutbacks it calls for.

Some in the audience did not criticize Walden directly but shared heartbreaking stories about how the plan would prevent many people with pre-existing conditions from obtaining affordable health insurance. One woman told Walden that one of her children has autism and under the proposed plan, she would not be able to afford health insurance for her child.

Presently, anyone with a pre-existing condition is eligible for affordable health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, something that would change under the proposed plan. The plan put forward by the Trump administration would give states the right to request and receive waivers from the federal government that would determine the premiums for people with pre-existing conditions.

Walden spoke in Elgin following a town hall in Baker City, where health care was also the dominant topic.

La Grande resident Joe Hayes, a U.S. Army veteran who served for eight years, is among those who spoke at the Baker City town hall. Hayes said his daughter suffered from a genetic condition that's so rare the genetics team at Oregon Health and Science University had never heard of it. Hayes said his daughter died when she was 7 months old. A Medicaid program paid for her medical expenses, which allowed him to leave his job to care for her.

"(That program) and others like it will be affected by your new plan," Hayes said to Walden. "The program saved me. It provided services to my daughter when nothing else existed. My little girl, were she alive today, would be considered (as having) a pre-existing condition of which we know now you and yours have shown very little to care for."

Hayes said free health care extended his daughter's life and saved him from financial ruin. She required around-the-clock medical care. She had a hole in her throat to breathe and was fed through a hole in her stomach.

He said he believes Walden and every other member of Congress who supports the bill needs to explain to parents of sick children why their kids might be affected by cuts in health care programs.

"There are people with kids being born right now, living life scared to death that people in Washington are prioritizing money and insurance and the rich over the poor and the downtrodden -- the people who need it the most," Hayes said. "It's the American dream, and you're threatening to take it away."

Walden said he would be happy to talk with Hayes about the program he was referring to and determine whether the bill would affect it.

"You're right, it's kids like that and parents like you that need this help," Walden said. "We believe it would continue under the (bill). That's all I can tell you."

A number of people in the Elgin audience, including Whitaker, accused Walden of helping to create a bill that benefits insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

"Why are you willing to put the interests of 'big insurance' and 'big pharma' corporations in front of the needs of your constituents?" Whitaker asked.

Walden denied this, stating that the legislation would create more competition among health insurance companies, and drive down the cost of their premiums. Walden said most counties in Oregon have two or three insurance providers under the Affordable Care Act, but in other states there is just one provider per county. Walden foresees more and more insurance companies, now a part of Affordable Care Act exchanges, decreasing because the health plan is collapsing.

Diminishing competition is one of the reasons premiums and deductibles for Affordable Care Act plans are

rising, Walden said. One member of the Elgin audience told Walden that the deductible for his Affordable Care Act plan is now $7,000. Walden said that is unacceptable.

"What good is a plan if you have a $7,000 deductible?" Walden said.

Others in the audience told Walden that the United States should institute a single-payer health care system in which the government provides health insurance for everyone.

Walden asked the audience how many would like to have a single-payer, universal health care system. Roughly 90 percent of the people in the audience raised their hands.

Those in the audience who spoke in support of a single-payer system included Jeri Watson, of La Grande. She said the United States should follow the lead of nations like Canada and Great Britain, which provide universal health care to their citizens.

"There is no need to reinvent the wheel when so many other countries have successful universal health care," Watson said.

Walden responded by stating that a number of countries with single-payer health care systems are struggling to keep them afloat, and, in some cases, are providing incentives for those insured by the government to get their insurance through the private sector.

"They can't sustain it with their tax systems," Walden said.

Walden also said that he would feel uncomfortable putting the government in charge of health care. He noted that members of his staff work long hours helping veterans get health care from the Veterans Administration. The

process can be frustrating, Walden said.

"It took one veteran nine months to get an MRI," Walden said.

He said he fears that stories like this would be more frequent if government took over health care.

Walden said that some concerns people are expressing about the proposed health care bill will be addressed by the Senate.

"I think the changes that will be made in the Senate will make it even better," Walden said.

Such changes might help people like a man in the audience who told Walden that the proposed health plan would leave him high and dry.

"For the first time in my life, I would be without health insurance," he said.

The congressman, who remained calm throughout the town hall, said he appreciated the people who came Monday, despite the sometimes heated comments.

"I want to thank you. I am glad to hear your voices. It is much better than having people sit home and not vote," Walden said.

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