Allen rolls into LU on Hands Off My Health Care tour

Just a day after a landmark health care reform bill made its way through the Senate Finance Committee, the “Hands Off My Health Care” bus rolled through Central Virginia, gathering supporters despite temperatures in the low 40s and rain.

The tour, organized by free-market advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, featured a keynote address from former Virginia governor and U.S. Sen. George Allen. The tour made stops in Nelson County and Amherst, ending the day at Liberty University’s Arthur S. DeMoss Learning Center.

Several dozen residents crowded the foyer to hear Allen and others address their concerns and affirm their opposition to versions of the health care legislation working its way through Capitol Hill. Organizers estimated 100 Lynchburg-area resi-dents signed the group’s petition.

“All of us have concerns about our country,” Allen said.

“Folks are concerned. They’re worried … about whether or not their children will inherit the level of opportunity that we all inherited, to achieve the American dream.”

The thrust of Allen’s argument in relation to health care was that the system needs fixing, but current attempts to reform the system have fallen well outside acceptable boundaries.

“There are some very constructive, positive solutions because health care does need to be reformed,” he said.

Allen praised the merits of insurance systems that utilize health savings accounts, where each individual contributes money solely to his or her own account. The money is tax-free and continues to accrue even if it isn’t used.

He said such a system provides “more opportunities for personal responsibility.”

At the end, Allen said that though opposition to current attempts at reform is a good thing, getting mad isn’t enough.

“What we need to be doing is providing ideas that can work,” he said.

Liberty Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. showed up at the event as it was wrapping up and briefly addressed the speakers.

“All these are such important issues to us, to our students, to the future. We’re just very thankful that somebody’s taken the time and effort to stop these crazy people,” Falwell said.

23rd District House of Delegates candidate Scott Garrett and 22nd District Del. Kathy Byron also were on hand at the event, with Garrett offering a brief address to open the meeting.

LU student Andrew Anderson, 19, said he felt strongly about the health care issue and hasn’t seen a workable option in the government’s most recent attempts.

“I think it should be shot down as it is. People should not be forced in any way to buy anything,” he said, adding there’s another factor, other than just reform of a broken system.

“It’s another way that they’re trying to get more control over more and more people,” he said.

Longtime Lynchburg resident Hope McRorie agreed with that.

“I feel that this is not about health care. This is about power,” she said.

McRorie, who has two children and two grandchildren, said she was afraid for the younger generations who would be slapped with the debt were a government-run system to fall in place.

“Older people are going to lose their health care,” she said, “and the young people are going to pay for it.”