Tanner listens to care concern: Congressman gets public earful about health proposals

WASHINGTON, Aug 19, 2009 (The Commercial Appeal - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- U.S. Rep. John Tanner, D-Tenn., said uncertainty and anxiety are what he's hearing most from constituents when the subject is health care reform, adding that he's not ducking opportunities to address public forums on the subject.

In a phone interview from his district after addressing the Dyersburg Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday afternoon, Tanner said health care reform "is the most complicated domestic issue that I have encountered." But talking with constituents about it now is problematic because most of the questions they have can't be answered yet, Tanner said. The Senate left town for the August recess without a bill to discuss and, so far, only House committees have passed bills that, Tanner said, "cannot become law." "Nobody knows what's going to happen. There's a lot of anxiety out there which uncertainty in the future begets," he said. "Most reasonable, sensible people realize that we've got some holes in the current delivery system that are resulting in inefficiency, duplication, nonproductive ... provider-to-patient expenditures, and what I've been telling people is we need to figure that out before we start overturning the entire system." He added: "I think we need to take a deep breath and go at this thing incrementally." Tanner and the fiscal conservative Blue Dog Democrats were successful in preventing further consideration, such as a floor vote, on any of the House bills until the House and Senate reconvene Sept. 8.

Far from avoiding talking to constituents about the issue, as his Republican opponent, Donn Janes of Brighton, has suggested, Tanner said he has been meeting with civic groups, business people, health care providers and others and will hold two telephone "town hall" meetings on the subject on Aug. 28 and 31.

He said the telephone conference calls are a better way to reach large numbers of people, particularly senior citizens who have an avid interest but who might not brave an evening meeting in a courthouse.

-- Bartholomew Sullivan: (202) 408-2726 To see more of The Commercial Appeal or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.commercialappeal.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

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