Attendees at health care forum vent frustrations on Luetkemeyer

A punching bag with a picture of the representative took center stage.

By Trevor Eischen

Published April 17, 2009

A local human rights group held a meeting to address health care issues facing state and federal government on Wednesday.

Grass Roots Organizing Executive Director Robin Acree opened the meeting with a song titled "Blaine, Come Closer."

In it, she asked for U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., to speak with GRO and other constituents about health reform.

GRO invited Luetkemeyer to the event, but he did not attend.

"We at GRO have been working on this issue for a very long time," Acree said. "We will not give up the fight until we have health care for everyone. We will not give up the fight until people like Congressmen Luetkemeyer hear our voices and do something about the health care crisis in this country. Not tomorrow, not two years from now, but right now."

Acree later pulled from a back closet a punching bag with a picture of Luetkemeyer taped on. The speakers directed their anger and frustration toward the punching bag for the rest of the meeting. One participant took a jab at the punching bag, knocking over the imaginary Luetkemeyer off his chair.

Health Care for American NOW Administrator Ricky Battle said supporters of a public health care initiative must rally now to prevent further loss of life.

"I can't tell you all enough about what I've gone through and how I've dealt with losing people and losing parents and losing friends and losing family for the simple fact that they don't have health insurance," Battle said.

Former state Rep. Judy Baker, D-Columbia, spoke at the meeting to address the issues in Washington. Baker lost to Luetkemeyer in the 2008 election in a run for Missouri's 9th Congressional District, which was left vacant by Kenny Hulshof, a Republican.

"We have the most irrational, insensible health care system on the planet and it is time for reform now," Baker said.

Baker said major health care developments once rejected in the early 1990s during the presidency of Bill Clinton have now been brought back into consideration by the administration of President Barack Obama. She said 80 percent of Americans believe some sort of health care reform is necessary to fix current problems.

"We spend more than any other industrialized nation in the world and still don't have everyone covered," Baker said. "We spend so much more money and have so much less."

Baker said Obama has put enough provisions within the stimulus package and the recovery bill to start reform. She also said free market and government-sponsored health care could coexist.

At the federal level, Obama announced his health care plans within the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act during a speech Monday at Georgetown University.

"Nothing will be more important to this goal than passing health care reform that brings down costs across the system, including in Medicare and Medicaid," Obama said. "Make no mistake; health care reform is entitlement reform."

Obama and Congressional Democrats support the creation of a government-run health insurance plan. The government entity would compete against private insurance providers.

In Missouri, the Republican-controlled legislature and Democrat Gov. Jay Nixon are at odds on the issue. Nixon has advocated for the expansion of the state's public health care program, but attempts to do so have largely been rejected by the Republicans in the General Assembly.

On Tuesday, Senate Democrats attempted to attach an amendment to the appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Senior Services that would enact a Nixon plan to expand public health care for children.