RECAP: Sen. Brown's Columbus Health Care Town Hall

Video highlights (I apologize in advance for the poor quality...I'm learning on the fly):

Despite what happened at prior health care town halls in Florida and Pennsylvania, and a concerted effort by conservative bloggers in our own state to drum up opposition, today's health care town hall on the campus of The Ohio State University Medical Center was a relatively civil affair.

The event began with introductory remarks from Sen. Brown, as well as from a panel including OSU Medical Center's Dr. Steven Gabbe, the hospital's Senior Vice President for Health Services, a representative of Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, and four Ohio citizens. Not surprisingly, the doctors offered insight into the need for health care reform from a medical perspective, and the citizens recounted their own difficulties with the expensive and labyrinthine insurance procedures currently in place.

The panel’s physicians (well represented in the audience) focused their remarks on the need for preventative care, and stressed the importance of including those measures in any final bill. Dr. Gabbe, in particular, listed some sobering statistics, stating that the nation’s academic research hospitals (like Ohio State) treat more than 70% of uninsured patients who require urgent care, and that 80% of our nation’s health expenditures go to 20% of our population suffering from chronic and preventable illnesses.

Sen. Brown added to those remarks, assuring the crowd that under any version of the final bill, the public will no longer be subsidizing the uninsured through increased premiums (as we presently do). Rather, with all Americans required to carry insurance, overall costs to the consumer would be lowered and coverage extended.*

*Though Sen. Brown did not make this parallel, I believe the historic example of requiring all citizens to carry car insurance is one that serves us well in trying to understand the impact of that particular provision. -BLC

Sen. Brown also renewed his support for reform now, and his pledge to not accept government insurance through Congress until all Ohioans are covered. Asked at the end of the event if he himself would take the public option being discussed, he said, “There’s a pretty good chance that, if it works out like I think, you’d see me take the public option.”

The town hall also featured passionate pleas for reform from the crowd, well thought out questions about what reform could mean for those currently insured, and yes, a few crazy ramblings (some of each are highlighted in the videos above).

As remarkable as the content of this town hall was what was absent from it. Despite clear passions on both sides, for the most part the crowd remained respectful of the positions being taken, and listened closely to the points being raised by the opposition.

In a world where Congressmen call audience questions “bullshit” and audience members physically assault one another, it’s refreshing to see that, just occasionally, the machinery of Democracy works as the Founders intended.

For additional photos and video from today's forum, visit http://buckeyepunditeers.blogspot.com, and see a recap of the day's events as they happened at http://www.twitter.com/bradleylcromes.