The Civic Report

All this talk about health care reform has swirled like a screaming, incomprehensible vortex for months now, and still I haven’t any sense of what really would happen if a bill were to pass.

Would I, as an underemployed, uninsured “young invincibile,” get relief or just a mandate to buy insurance?

Would there be a public option? And, if so, what would that mean? How much would it likely cost me to be insured and what kind of coverage would I get?

I could go on and on with questions, and I have for months now, and still not get anywhere. No one’s going to just appear with the answers.

So here we go, let’s do this together.

I’ve posted the latest House version — the 1,990-page Affordable Health Care For America Act put out by Speaker Nancy Pelosi this morning. I invite anyone and everyone to read it, comment on it, ask questions about it and together perhaps we’ll learn something about it.

Happy reading!
House Health Care Bill

Vice President Joe Biden’s Chicago roundtable on health care Thursday was as noteworthy for what wasn’t discussed at it as for what was.

A public health insurance option dominates the national discussion. The vice president talked about electronic record-keeping.

Why? Because no one objects to electronic record-keeping. It may be the least contentious reform proposal.

But the real way you know it was a dog-and-pony show was by seeing who got the invite. Roland Burris, Lisa Madigan, Jan Schakowsky and a whole bunch of doctors from Sinai hospital in their spiffy white coats.

Roland Burris isn’t likely to show up at a health care discussion unless he knows he won’t have to answer any tough questions.

In fact, he didn’t have to answer a single one. The panel itself took no questions from the audience and none from the press.

To call that a discussion strains credulity.

No question electronic records beat manila folders with brads. And no doubt $1.2 billion to help hospitals and clinics launch electronic records systems helps. But do we really need to have a roundtable discussion about it?

Is that really why the vice president flew to Chicago? To convince us of that?

Here are links to today’s coverage of the event:

• Chicago Tribune: Vice President Joe Biden hears from hospitals about getting medical records online
• Chicago Sun-Times: Biden pitches health care plan on the West Side
• Associated Press: Biden To Announce Almost $1.2B For Medical Records
• Chicago Public Radio: Joe Biden Brings Health Care Fight To Chicago
• Medill News Service: Biden plays it safe on health care — no public option debate here
• Daily Herald: Biden in town to announce almost $1.2 billion for medical records

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin

Dick Durbin, the senior U.S. senator from Illinois, has decided against holding any townhall meetings to discuss the president’s health care plan.

Health care townhalls across the country have been disastrous for Democrats, marked with frustration and no small amount of vitriol.

Rather than risk a shouting fest, Durbin says he will hold private meetings across the state.

Juicy quote: He won’t be doing what he calls “sucker-punch town hall meetings” that he says have attracted “political theater,” CBS2 Chicago reports.

Related: Aspiring senator Mark Kirk held a private townhall meeting in Naperville Wednesday along with fellow Republican U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert. No one shouted at that meeting.

Reporting quirk: The Plainfield Sun reported that one audience member asked Kirk and Biggert this tough question:

I’ve set up companies in Canada, England and in the U.S., and I can tell you that unless my spouse works for a big company with health care, I can’t think about opening a business,” Kirk was told. “Why should I be responsible for my employees’ health care when a society should take care of that?”

The reporter did not include Kirk or Biggert’s response.

Watch a recent townhall in Tampa:

Feel like going to a townhall? CBS2 Chicago lists these upcoming meetings:

U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) is planning health care town halls for 9 a.m. on Aug. 22 at Malcolm X College, 1900 W. Van Buren St., and at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 29 at the Second Baptist Church of Maywood, at 36 S. 13th Ave. in Maywood.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) has a town hall set for 6:30 p.m. Aug. 31 at Niles West High School Auditorium, at 5701 Oakton St. in Skokie.

U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) has scheduled a town hall meeting for 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 18 at the Sheldon Heights Church of Christ, 11249 S. Halsted St.