WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-Heated Healthcare Debate Reaches Vermont

Heated Healthcare Debate Reaches Vermont

Rutland, Vermont - August 15, 2009

As the temperature heated up Saturday in Rutland, so did the debate over healthcare reform. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders held the state's first town hall meeting on the topic. More than 600 people attended. Opponents of President Obama's healthcare reform plan lined up on one side of the room, proponents on the other side.

"We don't not want some bureaucrat telling us when we can see a doctor, what doctor we can go to for anything. We want to retain the freedom's we have in this country," said an opponent. "People have said they're opposed, that they're in favor of Medicare. Well, the single payer movement is about medicare for all," countered a supporter.

Town Hall meetings on healthcare reform have been bombarded by protesters across the country. About 20 police officers kept on eye on Rutland's debate. The discussion was civil, but passionate. One Rutland man told the crowd that he arrived at five a.m. just to make sure his voice was heard.

"I'll am asking is to make something that's not so wicked complex," he told Senator Sanders.

Four different versions of a healthcare reform bill are floating around Capitol hill. That's created some confusion. Many in Rutland were concerned that President Obama's proposal would create government-sponsored "death panels" to decide which patients are worthy of living. It's a claim that has been widely discredited.

"They can't take that provision out because it ain't in there!" said Sanders. "Do you really think in the United States we'd have a president that would say we're going to kill off old people?" "He said it! He said it himself! I heard it on television," argued a woman in the crowd.

The debate is expected to continue to grow, as lawmakers move from one city to the next pushing health care reform. Senator Sanders is the only member of Vermont's congressional delegation holding town hall meetings on the plan. Another forum is scheduled for August 23rd in Peacham.

Keagan Harsha - WCAX News