PEORIA -- About three dozen people carrying signs supporting health system reform and the public option were on hand on Oct. 26 as Cong. Aaron Schock, R-Peoria, entered the federally qualified and subsidized Heartland Community Health Clinic on N. Wisconsin, to hold a 9:30 a.m. news conference touting his version of health reform, HR 2515.
He sped past them and entered the clinic for the invitation-only news conference. A couple of citizens from the rally asked to attend but were refused entry.
The protesters earlier had been required to retreat to the sidewalk beyond the large parking lot for the clinic, which is in a strip mall with a Kroger's supermarket and other businesses. Police issued the orders, saying they had been told to move the crowd.
Three police cars showed up, something to remember when police layoffs are discussed by the cash-strapped city officials.
One man in the crowd of protesters said he recognized one of the cops, who had followed him home in his car from another recent rally and stopped him, questioned and harassed him. The probable cause for the stop? No seat belt, which was actually fastened, the man said.
After the news conference, Schock again sneaked out the door and entered his vehicle and left without speaking to the protesters.
Several protesters afterward went shopping at the supermarket, proving that rallies are good business for businesses.
Here's the news release from the Schock office. He has never held a pubic town hall meeting on health reform, apparently appeared only once on a panel at a town hall forum, then has met only with pre-selected groups, a tactic taken from George W. Bush:
After a town hall, several tele-town halls and meetings with patients-rights advocates, doctors, nurses, hospital administrators and medical groups, Congressman Aaron Schock (R-IL) will announce his support for the Medical Rights and Reform Act, legislation authored by a House caucus of centrist members, on Monday, October 26 at the Heartland Community Health Clinic at East Bluff.
The Medical Rights and Reform Act would mandate a fundamental principle – the government should not come between patients and their doctors. The Act will protect every American’s relationship with their doctor, the integrity of the medical profession and the right of Americans to choose the care they deem appropriate without federal delay or restriction.
-- Elaine Hopkins
Here's a portion of the news release analyzing Schock's proposal, issued by the Campaign for Better Health Care, which organized the rally:
Congressman Schock’s Health
Care Initiative:
Don’t Get Sick – Deregulate the Insurance Industry (give them more
control)
Deny Working Families and Businesses the Right to Choose Their Health Care
A Sick Halloween Treat
Congressman Schock will be unveiling a
health care plan that is designed to strengthen the control, power and wealth
of the insurance industry that will result in:
-higher
costs for working families and small businesses in the 18th
Congressional District, therefore increasing the number of uninsured,
-decreasing
access to vital benefits, therefore increasing the number of uninsured,personal
bankruptcies, and medical debt to providers,
-denying
the American public the right to choose the health care plan that is best for their needs, including the right to
choose a public option, which Mr. Schock has been given that opportunity,
-allowing
the health insurance industry to continue
to dictate and overrule the medical decisions
of doctors regarding what health care benefits that consumers need, and
-decreased quality and wasteful spending-
opposing any assessments on what works and denying doctors access to effective
medical research. -30-
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