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Sparks fly as Sen. Brown refs health care forum

Many passionate views on each side of issue expressed from crowd of 420.

Supporters for and against health insurance reform debate outside Ohio State University’s Biomedical Research Center, where U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, was speaking on health insurance reform Wednesday, Aug. 12, in Columbus.

Associated Press photo by Terry Gilliam Supporters for and against health insurance reform debate outside Ohio State University’s Biomedical Research Center, where U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, was speaking on health insurance reform Wednesday, Aug. 12, in Columbus.

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By William Hershey, Staff Writer 1:04 AM Thursday, August 13, 2009

COLUMBUS — There was shouting, clapping and booing — but no melees — Wednesday, Aug. 12, as U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown refereed a clash between opposing sides in the heated national debate over remaking America’s health care system.

Brown generally kept the discussion civil during a forum at Ohio State University’s Biomedical Research Center. An estimated 420 people showed up, including more than 150 in a meeting room and the rest in overflow rooms.

Mike Neutzling, 56, and Jeff Davidson, 58, represented opposite sides.

Neutzling, a nurse at Ohio State’s Medical Center, blasted plans by Brown, President Obama and others to overhaul the existing system. He said 80 percent of Americans are satisfied with their coverage.

“The whole concept of limited government is being tossed out the window,” Neutzling said. He said the nation’s founders “understood that when you have unlimited government you have unlimited tyranny.”

Davidson, a retired accountant, strongly disagreed, urging Congress and Obama to come up with a plan to cover the more than 45 million Americans, including an estimated 1.2 million in Ohio, without health insurance.

“I want you to raise my taxes,” Davidson said. “I can afford it.” The current system, he said, is “immoral.”

Brown blasted insurance companies for employing what he said were scare tactics to make people think they’ll lose their private coverage under plans now being discussed.

That’s not so, and Obama’s goal is not to create a single-payer system, said Brown.

Lisa Hackley, spokeswoman for the Ohio Association of Health Plans, disagreed with the “scare tactics” charge.

“We’ve tried to be a constructive force in the debate and urge a bipartisan solution,” Hackley said.

Tracy Hafen of Washington Twp., who did not attend the meeting, said Brown’s office tried to hide it from opponents to the president’s plan by not publicizing it prominently on Brown’s Web site. Brown spokeswoman Meghan Dubyak said there was no effort to hide the meeting as it was well-attended by supporters and opponents alike.

Brown is on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, which has passed a bill with a public health care option to compete with private health plans.

“This has been very helpful to me,” Brown told the crowd. “Thank you for respecting other viewpoints.”

Contact this reporter at (614) 224-1608 or whershey@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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