Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Demonstrators rally for health care reform

Supporters spotlight efforts to pass reform that includes public health insurance program to compete with private plans

Health care rally

Mona Shield Payne / Special to the Sun

Agustino Mathos of Massachusetts chants Saturday during a Pushback Network and PLAN rally for quality, affordable health care.

Health care rally

Tara Pruitt pumps her fist while chanting Launch slideshow »

Supporters of a public option in health care reform legislation rallied in western Las Vegas on Saturday.

Demonstrators, who gathered at the intersection of Fort Apache and Russell roads, called on lawmakers to pass sweeping reforms of what they characterized as a broken and inefficient heath care system.

“Nevada has one of the highest rates of uninsured in the country and that affects every Nevadan. It’s a tremendous drain and its a tremendously inefficient waste of taxpayer dollars,” said Assemblywoman Peggy Pierce, D-Las Vegas. “Everyone should be insured and everyone should have access to health care.”

The rally spotlighted Democrat-backed efforts to pass a comprehensive health care reform bill. House Democrats this month introduced a bill that would establish a public health insurance program to compete with private plans, and Senate Democrats are considering similar proposals.

While a recent poll showed that 72 percent of Americans would support a public health insurance option, a public-option plan faces opposition from critics who say it is too costly and will lead to a nationalized health care system.

The rally was also meant to draw attention to efforts by some heath insurance providers to block draft legislation being considered in the House and Senate. It was held down the street from an office of WellPoint, a major critic of a government-run health insurance plan. The company spent $1.22 million on lobbying in the first quarter of 2009.

“Wellpoint is spending millions of dollars in order to thwart the public option that we absolutely need. It is the critical plank if we are going to get real health care reform in this country” said Launce Rake, spokesmen for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada, which helped organize the rally.

“If we don’t get the public health insurance option, we will not see real reform. There will be no restraints on their ability to just jack up their price of premiums and limit the quality of care,” Rake said.

Sally Vogler, a spokeswoman for Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, a subsidiary of WellPoint, wrote in an e-mail that a new government plan is “unnecessary and would have devastating consequences.”

She said the company is concerned enacting a government-run plan would work against the goals of making coverage “available to those without it while improving the availability of health care for all Americans.”

“The current market for health insurance is competitive, and a government-run insurance plan would create problems in the marketplace, including...reducing consumer choice by driving insurers out of the market and hurting the ability of private plan initiatives to improve the quality and control costs in the delivery system,” she wrote.

Rake said the health care industry’s concerns about competition are not in the best interest of the consumer.

“I understand that they’re concerned about competition. If I was WellPoint, I would be concerned about competition as well,” he said. “The CEO of WellPoint has publicly said his concern is for the shareholders. My concern is for the health of Americans.”

The rally, which was also backed by the Nevada State Democratic Party and Pushback Network, a nationwide grassroots movement, attracted dozens of sign-bearing demonstrators from across the country, though organizers estimated that about three-fourths of attendees were Nevadans.

“We think it’s an issue that affects everybody in the United States,” said Maria Carrasco, who traveled from Massachusetts to attend a conference and the rally in Las Vegas, adding that if the proposed plan passes, health care “is going to be affordable for everybody.”

Demonstrators said they backed a grassroots effort to reform health care, and that despite health insurers’ promises to enact their own reforms, the current state of care is a sign that is it time to try new options.

“If you don’t bring down [the cost of] heath care, you are never going to fix the economy. We have to think long term,” said Kala Rehm, a Las Vegas resident who attended the rally. “This way is not working, so let’s give something else a chance.”

CORRECTION: The address in this story was clarified. | (June 29, 2009)

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