Where's transparency, Sen. Durbin?

Sen. Durbin's "listening session" on health care reform on Aug. 31 was changed from an open meeting to a closed meeting at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood. I tried to attend the event to learn more about the health care issues and our federal government's legislative process to reform health care access and reduce the growth in spending.

According to the Daily Herald, the senator was conducting a panel session and would brief the audience on the Senate's efforts regarding reform. Panel participants were to include a family physician, an emergency room doctor, a nurse, a hospital administrator, a financially challenged patient lacking coverage and a small-business owner. Loyola media representatives and security personnel informed a few members of the public seeking to join the audience, including me, that the session was moved to another building and was restricted to medical staff and students.

Why did I want to join the audience? I was seeking to learn more about the federal government's efforts to reduce the growth in spending including a) cost control measures proposed, b) plans to control Medicare costs, c) tort reform initiatives, if any, and d) initiatives to allow insurance companies to operate on an interstate basis rather than operate with the duplicity of state by state regulations. I was also seeking information about questionable expansion of coverage including a) abortion coverage, b) adding additional costs to extend coverage to young adults eligible for family coverage through age 26 or considering alternatives like maintaining the status quo; i.e. approximately 22 or perhaps limiting the extension to age 24, and c) expanding coverage to the "uninsured" noting almost half are "voluntarily uninsured" with an average annual household income of $65,000, according to a recent study by the past Director of the Congressional Budget Office.

Sen. Durbin's closure of the "listening session" says a lot about the senator's support of President Obama's transparency in government policy. What more can we expect from an Illinois politician coming from a state heaped in transparency in government?

Mike Tennis

Sleepy Hollow