Johanns holds town hall meeting to discuss health care

Nebraska Sen. Mike Johanns held a town hall meeting Friday in Lincoln to talk about the proposed healthcare bill that recently passed in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Lincoln citizens and Southeast Community College students gathered in metal folding chairs and on bleachers in SCC's gymnasium to hear Johanns' take on the "Obama"  bill and propose some "Johanns principles."

Nikki Isemann, an American government professor at SCC, required that her students attend the meeting and write a one-page report.

"You know, it's related to American government and it's in our school," Isemann said. "Our young people need to be informed."

Johanns came prepared with handouts to supplement his lecture on healthcare and emphasized that senators need to work together for the people, regardless of "who we are, where we come from or what our party affiliation is."
He said the bill as it has passed through the House undeniably provides more healthcare to more people.

But it does not "bend the healthcare cost curve."

"How are you bringing down the cost?" Johanns said. "There's nothing here that's doing that."

Steve Lauck of Lincoln works for Malbar Vision and heard about the town meeting on the news. He came because he too is concerned about the costs of the bill.

"I don't see any credits or anything that will reduce the amount we pay," Lauck said. "The cost of it would add so much to the deficit and I'm not really OK with the public option."

Lauck said he also has concerns about covering people with pre-existing conditions.

"I don't see how they can cover pre-existing conditions," Lauck said. "I mean, I would be glad they couldn't drop people because of that, but just the economics of it: A person with pre-existing conditions is going to have more expenses than a healthy person. Therefore, they'd have to charge higher premiums. Maybe those people couldn't afford it, and those health insurance companies could be losing money on them."

Johanns presented his proposals for bringing costs down and ensuring quality health care to Americans. His top six goals were to draft detailed plans on how to protect Medicare, ensure access to quality care, bring costs down, safeguard taxpayers, prevent federal funding of abortions and secure fair process and treatment.

The room burst into applause from some when a Lincoln woman asked Johanns about his action in the Senate.

"My very conservative father instilled one very valuable lesson in me: Don't complain about something if you're not going to do something about it," she said. "Do you plan to vote yes to the motion to proceed so the things that you have brought up can be discussed and debated and the changes that you see need to made?"

Because of the process the Senate must go through to approve a bill, Johanns said his vote to proceed would guarantee the bill remain the way it was coming out of the House. So no, Johanns will not vote to proceed.

Johanns said 61 percent of the current insurance policies in Nebraska would be considered not "federally approved," and could possibly be dropped should this legislation go through.

Another woman said her family pays more money every year for less insurance, and suggested perhaps some of the insurance companies should be dropped in the new plan.

"But what you have to understand is most of the insurance companies would probably comply with the new legislation," Johanns said. "Don't walk out of here thinking, ‘Oh no, 61 percent of the insurance is going to disappear.'"

Ultimately, Johanns said he is unhappy with the bill as it is, and said he is confident about his vote.

"This bill will not pass in the Senate."

ellenhirst@dailynebraskan.com