Sen. Mark Begich refereed round three in a series of Anchorage town hall meetings on the bruising national health care debate Friday night at Bartlett High School, where a poster at the entrance laid the ground rules for civility:
No signs. No standing. No interrupting. No being disrespectful.
"If you have any signs or firearms, we'd like you to leave them behind," a worker said as the last of more than 630 people filed into the school auditorium. Inside, both Begich and the proposed health care overhaul found impassioned friends and enemies.
Barbara Winkley of Anchorage told Begich she worked as a radiotherapy technician in Australia before moving to Alaska more than 40 years ago. Many of her patients were dying, she said, and they paid what they could: "$3, $10 or $20."
But when Winkley moved to the United States and got private health insurance, her provider dropped her because of a pre-existing condition. As a result, Winkley said she supports a health care plan that would include a "public option" -- meaning people who don't otherwise have coverage could buy into a government-run alternative to private insurance.
Proponents see the idea as a way to treat the uninsured, which Begich says number more than 130,000 in Alaska. Opponents see a dangerous slide into socialized medicine and crippling national debt.
"In my opinion, our government has no business meddling with health care reform at all," said Mark Frazure of Anchorage.
Across the aisle, Maureen Retzel told Begich the country is biting off more than it can chew by trying to overhaul health care. The debt will be unfathomable, she said, and the country would be better served focusing on building the economy.
"It would be better to focus on putting people back to work so that they have the money to pay the taxes and pay the costs that are involved with health care."
A man who introduced himself as an Army captain said people shouldn't have to choose between rent and medical care, while a student told of patients waiting two years for treatment in Canada's state-run, single-payer health care system.
A single-payer plan -- which Begich says he does not support -- isn't on the table in the current crop of reform proposals.
A giant screen on the stage behind Begich read: "Common sense reforms." It listed proposed health care changes such as ending annual or lifetime caps on insurance coverage and ending "exorbitant out-of-pocket expense."
Travis Cox of Anchorage was the first speaker of the night, and set the early, bare-knuckle tone by calling Begich a lapdog for the Democratic National Committee.
Others immediately shouted Cox down from the crowd. "You're a jerk!" someone hollered.
As Begich talked about how he disagreed with President Obama's stance against funding Alaska Territorial Guard pensions, a man in the back loudly grumbled. "Shut up!" spat a woman in front of him, with what appeared to be a seeing-eye dog at her feet.
Begich held a similar town hall meeting here in June and Sen. Lisa Murkowski followed in August.
Friday morning, police announced they'd heard unconfirmed reports of someone on talk radio encouraging people to bring firearms to the event to support the right to bear arms. That's not unheard of at Alaska public gatherings, but state law forbids guns on school grounds.
Except for the angry interruptions -- particularly early in the meeting -- there was no sign of trouble Friday.
A man who later declined to give his name challenged Begich's assertion that insured patients pay a "hidden tax" of $1,900 a year to cover the uninsured.
"Don't pretend on one hand under-privileged people can't get care, and on the other hand tell me how much it costs," he said.
Katie Morran, a retired nurse, said she worked for years at an Anchorage emergency room that people with no insurance often used as their primary source of health care.
Many were business owners that had the money for insurance but chose not to buy it, she said.
Call Kyle Hopkins at 257-4334 or e-mail khopkins@adn.com.
By KYLE HOPKINS
khopkins@adn.com