News 12 at 11 o'clock, August 10, 2009

EVANS, Ga. --- Tenth District Representative Dr. Paul Broun held two sessions of town hall meeting Monday night to listen to the concerns over President Obama's health care reform.

At least one thousand people showed up to listen or voice their concerns over the proposed bill.

"People are scared," says Rep. Broun. "I'm here to listen to what they have to say and to let them know that I am not going to vote for it [the bill]and I'm not going to standby and do nothing."

For this crowd Representative Paul Broun is the key to stopping President Obama's 1,018 page proposed health care reform bill.

On Monday night, Congressman Broun was met with cheers from not one - but two packed rooms in Evans. Rep. Broun says his office has been flooded with emails, phone calls, letters and faxes all expressing fear over the new bill.

"They don't want to lose their health care coverage, they don't want to see the increased cost they don't want to see people lose their jobs,"says Broun.

Violet Pritchard says she doesn't care much for the new bill or the ideas it represents.

"I think that they're trying to cram it down our throats," says Pritchard. "They should make it plain so the ordinary American people can understand the whole thing."

Toby Rowl says,"We're concerned about the government getting into our health care, we're concerned about the loss of our freedom."

Sylvia Hoper says she's just plain confused.

"Nobody really knows anything. Nobody understands.Nobody understands what that whole thing is going to say and do to us,"says Hoper.

Melvin Rhodes says he is not all at happy with the plan.
"I'm a senior, I'm African American and Obama care doesn't work for me. It's not right, it's not fair and I'm an American and I should be able to decide my life, when its going to end, what doctor I can see. I have good health insurance and nobody should be able to take it away from me. And by the way, I'm conservative!"

Tory Graham showed up at the meeting not to protest the bill but to hear what the meeting was all about. He says he wanted to be informed.

"I just know something needs to be done, so my main concern is it gets worked out on both sides and that the right thing happens, "says Graham.

Most who attended the town hall meeting wanted to make sure their voices were heard. Ron Jackson says he wanted to express his issues with the bill and didn't know if he would be heard, so he brought along a sign.

"The bill is incomprehensible and there's many things that scare me about it, " says Jackson. "The bottom line is it's not really about health care and insurance reform; it's about wealth redistribution."

Congressman Broun says the bottom line is that he wanted his constituents to know he's listening.

"My goal is to leave dollars in their pockets,to shrink the size of government,to stop the outrageous spending this Congress is doing,"added Broun.

Many concerns the crowd expressed involved rationing of health care, losing the freedom to choose a physician and an increase in the overall cost of health care.

Many in the crowd had signs and cheered throughout both sessions, but the crowd was peaceful as they listened to all the concerns.

Rep. Broun encouraged those who attended to write to elected officials, send emails and faxes and to let all members of Congress know their views.