UNM students dodged drinks thrown from cars and yelled at oncoming traffic Monday to protest the recent health care reform.
Student Sean Griffin stood at Yale and University Boulevards for hours with about 20 students. He said he started organizing the protest with a few other students after the reform passed last night in the House of Representatives.
“We’re all here because we have different views on health care,” he said. “We have one thing in common though — we don’t agree with the health care reform.”
The students held signs stating, “Honk if you hate the health care bill,” and “8:58 p.m. — Liberty is Lost.” Some people honked their horns in support, but others went as far as throwing drinks from their cars at the students.
According to the Washington Post, the reform will bring health care to 30 million people, but Griffin said the price tag of $900 billion spent over a 10-year period is too expensive.
“We’re going to have the same problems with health care, it’s just going to be someone else taking the money,” he said.
Griffin said there is no such thing as free health care that’s provided through private vendors. The bill does not include a public insurance option available to all Americans.
According to the CBS Web site, the bill will pay for people without health care to get a plan with at least minimal coverage. To pay for the bill, it “include(s) a 3.8 percent tax on investment income for families making more than $250,000 per year.” Insurance companies will also have to pay a 40 percent tax on extremely high-end insurance plans, according to the site.
“The health care bill has radically changed into a beast,” Griffin said.
Griffin said he worked over 100 hours campaigning for President Barrack Obama to be elected into office, and he is disappointed that the President allowed the bill to get to this point.
Student Derrick Heisey said the bill will increase taxes on health insurance companies and the middle class.
“I’m all for health care reform, but not for this bill,” said Heisey, co-organizer of the protest.
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He said the entire bill is a mess.
“It shouldn’t be illegal to not get health care,” Heisey said.
The CBS site said that by 2014, people who haven’t purchased health care will face a $695 annual fine.
Heisey said the bill also cuts Medicare — something else he isn’t happy about. Medicare will be cut $500 billion over the next 10 years, the CBS Web site said.
“Let’s say my best friend needs a liver transplant,” Heisey said. “I’d be more than happy to pitch in for his medical bills. But for someone I don’t even know? I’m not willing to do that.”
