Central Floridians Still Confused About Health Care Bill
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
By: Euna Lhee, HealthyState.org

October 27, 2010 | WMFE - Next week is elections, so 90.7 is focusing on some of the big issues on voters' minds. One of the biggest is the debate over health care. Candidates are getting heated up while debating President Obama's health care overhaul, but central Floridians aren't sure what to make out of the bill and how the issue is going to affect their votes.

Breast cancer survivors line up under the starting banner at Susan Komen Race for the Cure in Orlando.

Young professionals got together at the farmer's market in Orange County Oct. 25 to watch the Florida gubernatorial debate. Here's what they had to say.

University of Central Florida cheerleaders lead the warm-up for the Susan Komen Race for the Cure for Breast Cancer at UCF’s Orlando campus.

The participants are thinking about the race ahead, but they took some time out to talk health care and politics.

"We have badly needed health care reform for a long time, but in going over the bill, which takes a couple days to read, I really think that maybe all the issues we’re facing today aren’t the answer,” said Pam Anderson, a race volunteer from Volusia County.

That’s right. She said it took her two days to read the 900+ page bill. Many people don’t have that kind of time.

"As every American, you have bills to pay, children to take care of, you have life,” said Denise Metts, a mother of two and personal trainer also from Volusia. “And sometimes that needs to come first, before your understanding of reform.”

It’s not just race goers who are confused about the law. Some doctors are just as uncertain about its future implications.

"I think that what we’ve ended up with here is… well nobody knows what we ended up with here,” said Fort Meyers plastic surgeon Douglas Stevens, a member of the Florida Medical Association. “I mean, nobody really understands where this is going to go and how this is exactly going to work.”

Last year’s debate on the bill on the House floor got confrontational. And it catapulted one central Florida Democrat onto the national stage.

"Die quickly. That’s right. The Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick,” Orlando congressman Alan Grayson said.

Republicans on the floor, like Congressman John Mica of Winter Park, fired back. He said he was hearing a different message from his constituents.

"Halt the dismantling of America,” Mica said. “Say no to government-run health care.”

It took months of negotiations between the two parties before Congress passed the bill earlier this year. The health care law will require all Americans to have health insurance and bar insurance companies from dropping patients with pre-existing conditions.

All Republicans voted against the bill. And it’s a campaign issue for candidates in this year’s election. The GOP is still staunchly opposed to the law, even on the state level. In a debate on Univision, Florida gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott said Obama’s health care plan wouldn’t do anything to reduce costs.

It’s a disaster for patients. It’s going to end up cutting 500 billion dollars out of Medicare,” Scott said. “It’s going to ration care, and it’s going to bankrupt each of our states and our country.”

He supports a state constitutional amendment that would prohibit the federal government from imposing President Obama’s individual health insurance mandate.

But many Florida Republicans, including US Senate candidate Marco Rubio, want to get rid of the health care law altogether.

"It cannot be saved. It must be repealed and replaced with common sense ideas that allow individual Americans to buy health insurance from any company in America that will sell it to them,” Rubio said on a recent ABC News debate.

But the Democrats dispute the argument the plan will ration care. They also say it will save money in the long run and also help the uninsured get coverage.

"You have to look at what’s happening in real Florida. Real Florida people don’t have insurance,” Democratic Senate candidate Kendrick Meek said in the same ABC debate. “I’m the only one here that understands that 3500 Floridians lose their insurance every week. That’s a fact. That’s not fiction.”

Back at the breast cancer race, the runners line up under the starting banner.

Over at the finish line, race volunteer Pam Anderson arranges some bananas on a table for the runners. She says even though she’s a registered Republican, she’s not sure how health care policy will influence her vote this year.

"I want somebody who’s willing to work on the issue and not just interested in bashing the other side,” Anderson said. “I think that’s a problem. They’re not willing to sit down together and work together.”

Busy mom Denise Metts also isn’t sure how she’s going to vote. She wishes the politicians would make the issue less confusing.

"Put it in layman’s terms, and maybe we’ll all sit down and read it, and you’ll have more voters at the booth,” Metts said.

Like Metts, many race goers say they still need to decipher the contents of the bill. Only then could the issue of health care affect their votes.