Walz invites Kline to participate in health care meeting

Posted at 4:03 PM on August 14, 2009 by Tim Pugmire (3 Comments)

Congressman Tim Walz announced this week that he'll hold a town hall meeting on heath care reform Aug. 20 in Mankato. Today, the Democrat invited Republican Congressman John Kline to share the stage. Walz sent out a news release saying Kline's participation could help restore civility to the debate:

(Mankato, MN) - Today, Congressman Walz invited Republican Second District Congressman John Kline to join him at the town hall meeting he is hosting at Mankato East High School next Thursday evening. In return, Congressman Walz offered to join Congressman Kline at a town hall in his district. "In the past few weeks, we have seen shouting matches and disruptions in public meetings on health care in other parts of the country," said Walz. "That's not how we do it in Minnesota. My proposal is to restore civility to the great American tradition of Town Hall meetings. We restore this civility by having some good old-fashioned bi-partisan listening to all the people and all of the perspectives."

The constituents of Reps. Kline and Walz share a common bond because their congressional districts are next to each and a large number of their constituents work and are treated at Mayo Clinic. Mayo is the state's largest private employer and lost $840 million last year on $1.7 billion in Medicare treatments because of our broken system.

In a series of meetings this week, Congressman Walz heard from southern Minnesotans who have lost their health insurance because they lost their job or they could no longer afford the premiums and employers. He heard from Sheila Wieser, a mother who lost her son because he did not have access to the quality, affordable insurance he needed to treat his liver disease and from Betty Winkworth who is concerned her children are missing out on career opportunities because changing jobs or starting a small business may cause them to lose their insurance.

"The cost of health care is going up faster than Minnesota families and businesses can afford and this important issue deserves a civil conversation," Walz continued. "In the end, John and I may not agree on all the issues related to health care reform legislation, but I hope we can agree that our democratic process works best when elected leaders on both sides of the aisle come together to listen to people. I sincerely hope he will join me for this bi-partisan listening session next week."

Congressman Kline is the top Republican on the U.S. House Education and Labor Committee, which has partial jurisdiction over writing the health insurance reforms.

Comments (3)

"Walz sent out a news release saying Kline's participation could help restore civility to the debate..."

That is a misrepresentation of Walz's news release. You make it sound like just because Kline would be there, it would cause the people present to be civil. The implication is that it's Walz's fault that debates with just him are not civil.

That's not what Walz's news release said at all.

Posted by jamie | August 14, 2009 5:18 PM

I believe that Congressman Kline's HEL Committee has already approved one of the bills. On 7/17, HR 3200 America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 was approved by the committee.
With all the misinformation appearing on the Internet, it would be greatly appreaciated for Congressman Kline to address the discussions that his committee had when approving the bill. Kline could offer great insight to the discussion of "end of life" ... which Kline already voted in favor as part of the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill
{“The covered services are: evaluating the beneficiary’s need for pain and symptom management, including the individual’s need for hospice care; counseling the beneficiary with respect to end-of-life issues and care options, and advising the beneficiary regarding advanced care planning.” }

It makes a lot of sense for Kline to appear ... not only to offer the Republican counter argument but also since so many of his constuents are served by Mayo Health Systems.

Regardless, Walz should be congratulated for thinking outisde of the box. Hopefully, former First District Congressman Tim Penny whose district did contain much of what is now Kline's southern stretch, will be there.

Also, Walz offered to attend an open Town Hall meeting in Kline's district.

Posted by Minnesota Central | August 15, 2009 8:24 AM

How much money or other forms of donations has John Kline received or has been promised from doctors, medical insurers, pharmaceutical companies, and others with an interest in maintaining the status quo with regard to US Health Care?

Posted by John Dunham | August 20, 2009 8:16 AM

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