Community Commentary:

I attended the recent town hall meeting conducted by Rep. Adam Schiff, a man I admire and have great respect for. Although I am thoroughly in favor of health-care reform, I am very wary of any bill that includes a so-called “public option.”

I would like to see what the Senate comes up with in the way of a compromise that might include medical co-operatives that have worked quite well in some parts of the country. Contrary to what many mailbag letters have said, I do not believe Medicare is a good argument for a public health care option. While the Medicare system seems to work quite well for most enrollees, it has the same problem that the current private health insurance system has — it simply costs too much.

Like Medicare, most Americans enrolled in private healthcare plans are very happy with the care they get, but very unhappy with the ever-increasing premiums they pay.

That said, I found Schiff’s meeting to be very informative, but maybe not for the obvious reasons. I spent most of the evening moving around the crowd of attendees and this proved to be quite insightful as I had the opportunity to speak with several people of quite varying points of view. I came away with the following observations:

 There were a few radical demonstrators — from both the right AND the left.

 There were some particularly disappointing signs that showed great disrespect for President Obama, very reminiscent of the kind of disrespect shown President Bush.

 When the guest speakers talked about controlling costs there was no mention of one of the biggest factors of health care expense — abuse of the legal system. This causes doctors to have to pay incredible malpractice insurance costs and order unnecessary tests to protect themselves from lawsuits. And then there are the excessive and unjustified trial damage awards. President Bush tried to fix this early in his administration, but he proved to be no match for the American Trial Lawyers Assn.

 Distrust of Congress to do right by the American people. This seemed to lead to the next item.

 Anger. I was quite amazed at the anger so many people were expressing. (From what I see and hear in the media, this seems to be widespread throughout the country.)