July 29, 2009 02:06 AM UTC

Righties Rally Against "Government Health Care"

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• by: Colorado Pols

Reports the Denver Business Journal:

Several hundred people appeared at a rally to stop national health care reform efforts Tuesday afternoon at the state Capitol.

The campaign, called Hands Off Health Care, plans rallies across the state to raise opposition to health care legislation under consideration in Washington.

Speakers included Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute, a free-market think tank, and Jeff Crank, Colorado state director of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative advocacy organization.

Caldara took aim at the so-called “public option” lawmakers are considering, which would create a government-run insurance plan that would provide an alternative to private insurance for those who don’t qualify for Medicaid, Medicare or other government-run policies.

Many Republicans charge that creating such a plan would lead to a government takeover of the health care reimbursement system, resulting in rationed care and long waits for medical attention…

Many participants carried signs with messages that read: “Stop Obamacare scam,” “Stop health care takeover” or “Free market solutions only.”

A press release issued by ProgressNow Colorado, a progressive group that favors the health reform efforts, dismissed the rally as “yet another right-wing protest” organized by national interests.

Michael Huttner, founder of ProgressNow, said the effort was funded by “out-of-state millionaires” who also funded tea parties and anti-stimulus protests in Denver earlier this year.

“They are attempting to gain electoral advantage by bashing everything the President does, and scaring up local residents to create the false impression that their ‘anger’ is shared by the public,” Huttner said in a press release.