It was a warm, sunny, Florida day on a Saturday morning, [February 25, 2017,] in downtown St. Pete. Nevertheless, several hundred people chose to meet with their Congressman, Charlie Crist (D-St. Petersburg), in front of his office.
Unlike his Republican counterparts, Charlie walked among the crowd, chatting with the people, and even gave out his personal cell phone number. He listened to their concerns about health care.
Then he gave a short talk. Charlie made sure everyone heard him, “I support Medicare for all, I support a Single Payer Health Care, and I support fixing the Affordable Care Act.” That brought cheers.
As for Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Paul Ryan’s plan, Charlie admitted it would rob the poor and working classes to give to the wealthy 1%.
Interestingly, some old timers in the crowd had good memories.
- One pointed out that in 2006, William D. McGuire was forced out as CEO of United Health Care, because of a stock option scandal, but he got severance pay worth $286 million. This man thought that was part of the reason health care is so expensive. He had no use for the “for profit” insurance companies.
- Another old duffer had a “one up” example. He recalled a Pfizer CEO who was booted with a package of nearly $200 million and lifetime medical coverage, with an annual pension of $6.5 million.
Conclusion: drug prices are too high because of excessive profiteering.
Others had personal stories explaining why they feared Republican health care proposals. No one believed President Trump’s promise that health care would be better.
The sign waving and chants continued for several hours, as drivers honked in support when passing by.
Charlie Crist, at left, center, urged the people to keep up their resistance to the Trump agenda. He had a friendly crowd.
