August 28, 2009 09:58 PM UTC

Liveblogging from Sen. Bennet's town hall in Pueblo

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• by: Bennet for Colorado

2:43 — Good crowd today; probably fair to describe it as a polite crowd.

Stay up to date and learn more at http://BennetForColorado.com/healthcare.

2:42 — Michael is taking questions from a number of people as he makes his way towards the door.

2:41 — Michael thanked the crowd for coming out today.  [Applause].

2:34 — Question: There has been a lot of misinformation in the health care debate — much of it centered around fear [applause]. This is nothing new, and we need to get past this.  Even the health industry is proposing some reforms.  How do we get what the people want, which is change?  [Long applause, many people on their feet. One, maybe two or three people booing].

Michael: we should find the things we agree on and start there.  What we ought to do is make sure we communicate about what the details will be.  If we do it well we can get a vast improvement over what we have today.

2:32 — Just announced that this will be the final quesiton.

2:29 — Question: I think there’s a great divide in our politics; I think the Bush tax cuts were good [some clapping]; why don’t we open up competition in insurance, that’s something free we can do?  I can’t even figure out what a trillion is, but the government has no problem throwing out that kind of money.

Michael: You know what, we are broke. The reason I’m here to today instead of spending time with my girls is that our current debt is unresolvable if we don’t fix the status quo.

2:27 — Question: are you willing to increase taxes to pay for this?

Michael: I don’t think we need to raise taxes to do this.  I’ve said I’m not going to vote for a bill that’s not paid for.  I think there are places in our current system where we can find savings, for example we can improve our current Medicare reimbursement structure.

2:25 — Statement from someone in the crowd: how many people have done like me and waited to turn 65 so they can get their ailments addressed; how much does this cost us versus preventative care? I’d like to see everyone have the same benefits I have with Medicare. [Applause]

2:24:

2:18 — Question: I am against a government plan, why are we rushing into this instead of fixing Medicare / Medicaid?

Michael: The central question in the work that’s being done is to do the work on Medicare that you’re talking about. Right now the political debate is letting the tail wag the dog, because if we can’t fix that then this is pointless, and we shouldn’t pass a bill.  

As far as rushing into things, we’ve been trying to reform the health care system since Teddy Roosevelt was President [Applause].

2:18 — Question: can you hear me now? Laughter.

2:11 — Question: I don’t like the government’s track record with Medicare, VA, post office, etc. I don’t think something as big as health care should be trusted to the government. [Applause].  Why don’t you focus more on what your constituents want?

Michael: that’s exactly why I’m traveling around the state, hearing from people all over Colorado.  I heard from a constituent the other day who had to drop his health coverage because he couldn’t afford it. But his daughter was just admitted to college and she can’t enroll without health coverage. Families shouldn’t be forced into situations like this.

I don’t think the government should be running all this stuff either — we don’t need more bureaucracy.  But doctors in rural areas are already paying up to 30% on administrative fees.  Is this legislation a government takeover of health care though? No.

There is an option to do nothing.  But I don’t want to come back here in a few years and hear why haven’t we done anything to fix these problems; why haven’t you controlled these costs; why have you let our debt grow?

You cannot be a fiscal hawk and support the status quo in the health care system. [Applause – longest of the day so far].

2:07 — Question: I’m for a public option, I think we need to say that. [Applause] And, you know, we already have a public system with things like Medicare.

Michael: The numbers are staggering when you look at the cost increases. We are all paying more, for less coverage. Innovation in our system doesn’t come from the way that we pay the bills, it comes from doctors. And that’s different from how we decide to insure ourselves.

2:05 — For being such a large crowd this Q&A has been very well structured with no interruptions.  It looks like at least a few students from CSU-Pueblo have made their way into the event.

2:01 — Question: Why is Congress exempting themselves from the bills being introduced if they’re so great? [Applause]  I think this bill is a deliberate effort to have single payer health care [a spattering of claps].

Michael: I really don’t think the intention is to bring in a single payer system.  President Obama ran his campaign saying he wasn’t for this kind of system — a couple people in the crowd mumble that this is a lie, and promptly get shooshed.

1:57 — Question: I think we need reform, but the devil will be in the details, does “preventative care” mean we will be told what we can and can’t eat? There are too many generalities.

Michael: That’s a great point.  And I hate to sound like a bureaucrat, but I need to explain this: right now we have one House bill and two bills in the Senate. What’s probably going to happen is that we will end up with a bill that comes out of conference committee.

Preventative care is a huge issue too, because we don’t have the number of primary care physicians and nurses that we need — especially in rural areas — to be able to change our cost curves.  We need to change our incentive structure so more people go into primary care.

1:54 — Michael: 55% of people get their insurance from a private provider, 45% get their coverage from a public provider like the VA or Medicare.

1:45 — Question: I think we have the best health care in the world, lawsuits are cost drivers, so what in the public option will address this without degrading our quality of care — i.e. won’t people practice defensive medicine?

Michael: To the extent our legal system causes our doctors / nurses to practice defensive medicine — we need to look at that.  I’m not drawing a line in the sand saying we can’t.  Colorado has the 9th most restrictive tort environment of any state, and health care premiums were still rising sharply over the last decade.

The most important thing we need to do in this reform is changing the cost structure in Medicare and reforming insurance so people don’t lose coverage for things like pre-existing conditions.

I’ve said I’m for the public option and that is because I’ve heard from people all over the state who have had terrible experiences with private insurers not being there when they need it most.  I don’t, however, support a subsidized public option because I don’t think we can afford it — we need an option that is paid for.  [Applause]

1:43 — Q&A is beginning now, the slideshow is over.

1:42 — What are my objectives in health care reform?  I want to know will the reform end the double-digit cost increases we’ve been seeing, will it help dig us out of the fiscal hole we find ourselves in?  Those are the objectives I want to pursue.

1:40 — Some people say if we offer things like free / discounted preventative services like mammograms and colonoscopy procedures that will lead to more waste.  

I had someone say to me the other day, we really don’t need to worry about people going in for any unnecessary colonoscopies.

1:38 — Here’s a (blurry) photo of Michael’s slideshow:

1:36 — The national average for hospital readmissions for Medicare patients is 20%.  So how do places like Grand Junction and the Mayo Clinic keep their readmission rates so much lower?  They focus on quality, not quantity of care.  That’s why I’ve introduced the Medicare Transitions Act — so there will be an incentive for more places to create cost-effective programs like these.

1:35 — The core issue is, how are we going to drive down health care costs?

One part of fixing this will be moving to a system that is based more on outcomes and performance.

1:33 — Small businesses spend more on health care than do other businesses, which makes it increasingly difficult for them to provide health care.

And people who do health care through small businesses aren’t getting the level of coverage they were just a few years ago.

1:30 — Right now we’re spending 18% of our GDP on health care, which is twice what any other developed country is spending.

“There is no way we can compete in a global economy” spending that much of our GDP on health care.

1:28 — Applause from the crowd after Michael mentioned that by the end of the work period he will have been in every county in Colorado.

1:27 — Michael just skipped some “boring” slides.  Ha.

1:26 — What should we do about our debt?  Stop digging!

Michael introduced PAYGO legislation with Claire McCaskill to ensure the Senate’s spending is actually paid for.

Michael also introduced the Deficit Reduction Act of 2009 — this legislation will create budgets that reduce our annual deficit levels, with exemptions for things like veterans programs and Social Security.

1:23 — So what happens if we do nothing?  Our debt will grow out of control because Medicare and Medicaid costs are increasing so rapidly.

We don’t want to leave that to our children.

1:21 — Michael is beginning a slideshow on the current state of our health care system.

1:18 — Michael is giving his opening remarks: The status quo in health care is unacceptable.

1:11 — Sen. Bennet just arrived.  Pretty big crowd still filtering in; some open seats still sprinkled around.

1:06 — Based solely on a quick scan of the t-shirts in the audience it looks like there is a diverse range of viewpoints in the crowd.

12:54 PM — This is Carey, the new media director for Sen. Michael Bennet’s campaign liveblogging from the town hall today at CSU-Pueblo in the Colorado Ballroom at the Occhiato Center.

Michael has had a series of great health care discussions around the state, hopefully this will be another one.  Watch the video below for footage from Michael’s travels earlier this month.  

Also, show your support for health care reform by signing the petition at: http://BennetForColorado.com/healthcare.