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Published Saturday, August 15, 2009 in Local

Health care reform forums set for today, Monday, Tuesday

By Winston Skinner

The Newnan Times-Herald

Coweta County residents have several options to learn various viewpoints on the health care reform debate in the next few days.

Meetings are set in Jonesboro and at Emory University today. There will be a Town Hall Meeting on the topic, sponsored by the area Tea Party organization, on Monday at the Coweta County Fairgrounds.

U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey will be speaking on health care reform in Waco on Tuesday morning.

"Standing for Insurance Reform" will be held today from 10-11 a.m. at Mundy's Mill High School, 9652 Fayetteville Rd., Jonesboro. U. S. Rep. David Scott, who represents Georgia's 13th district, will be participating in the Jonesboro meeting.

Organizing for America, a project of the Democratic National Committee, is sponsoring the meeting at Mundy's Mill.

A National Panel Discussion on Health Care Reform will be held today from 3-6 p.m. room 208 in White Hall on the Emory University campus in Atlanta. The panel discussion is part of the "One America Celebration: Mobilizing National Service" sponsored by Empowerment Partners.

State Sen. Ronald B. Ramsey Sr. is the host for the overall One America Celebration and will take part in the panel discussion. Participants will learn about proposed health care reform legislation. There will be time for questions.

Panelists will come from Washington, D.C. and from Georgia. Prior to the panel discussion, a Wellness Health Fair will be held, and those attending are asked to bring non-perishable food items, first aid supplies or pharmacy gift certificates to be donated to a local organization.

Ramsey's District 43 includes parts of DeKalb and Rockdale counties.

The local Health Care Educational Town Hall Meeting will be held at the Coweta County Fairgrounds on Monday from 7-8:30 p.m. Southern Crescent Tea Party Patriots is sponsoring the meeting.

Although the Tea Party movement has been typified as being anti-tax, information on the group's website stressed that Monday's meeting would be "an educational discussion about current health care problems and sound free market solutions" with and "not a protest event." Signs will not be allowed.

Scheduled panelists include Ron Bachman, senior fellow with the Center for Health Care Transformation and Dr. James T. Sandwich, M.D. as well as Gerry Purcell, a Republican candidate for state insurance commissioner who has been described as a national medical insurance expert. The Center for Health Care Transformation is affiliated with former U. S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Information is available at -- ptcteapartypatriots.org.

Gingrey represents Georgia's 11th district and formerly represented part of Coweta County. His wife, Billie Ayers Gingrey, is from Newnan. In addition to being a Congressman, Gingrey is a medical doctor -- and obstetrician and gynecologist who had delivered more than 5,200 babies.

Gingrey will be speaking at the Haralson County Chamber of Commerce Membership Breakfast on Tuesday. The breakfast is set for 7:30 a.m. at the Murphy Campus of West Georgia Technical College in Waco. Steve Gradick, chairman of the Haralson County Chamber, said Gingrey will address the issue of nationalized health care.

Gingrey is one of 13 physicians in the U.S. House and is chairman of the Medical and Dental Doctors in Congress Caucus. He also serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee which voted in favor of health care legislation earlier this month with Gingrey voting "no."

He will take questions from the audience after his remarks. "Two most important questions are how will nationalized health care impact small business and also how will it affect our own personal health care decisions," Gradick said. Cost to attend the breakfast is $20.