Friday, August 7, 2009

Health Care Protests Heat Up on YouTube

In 1994, "Harry and Louise" two television ads paid for by the Coalition for Health Care Choices, helped to squash President Clinton's plans for health care reform. Now, as President Obama and other Democrats fan out across the country to tout their health care plan, citizens from Raleigh to New Hampshire are using YouTube to voice their discontent or approval of the plan. Some are opting to sound off about the issue in the privacy of their home, but many more are engaging in public protests and rallies to spread their message, then uploading this footage to YouTube.

For example, in the last day, over sixty videos have been uploaded from a health care townhall in Tampa, Florida, where tensions ran high and fighting broke out among protestors at the event:



At the same time, protesters jeered Congressman John Dingell at a townhall forum in Romulus, Michigan.

On the flip side of the issue, in DC, hundreds of SEIU supporters gathered for a health care reform vigil, and young people rallied for the public option:



Even those who are not uploading videos are still engaging in spirited debate on YouTube about the videos that are being posted by others. This video from a townhall in Texas has elicited over 530,000 views and over 7,000 comments. We're guessing this is just the tip of the iceberg, so keep checking Citizentube for more coverage of the health care debate as it unfolds on YouTube.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Health care with out the public option is useless...

No insurance company has ever treated me for any illness no insurance company has ever made me well. What we have to do is get the insurance company out from between doctor and patent and the only way to do that is with a public option, the insurance company's of course are against being removed from this very profitable relationship so they buy media and send out thugs to disrupt town meetings and stir up the type of folks that hang on every word uttered by Rush and Sara. Other wise common sense would make one see that there are no death boards, if you are happy with the insurance you have now you can keep it. are there actually people who would deny health care to anyone that can't afford insurance. I can tell you that one of the very best trauma centers in the country is being crushed now because they treat patents that can not afford to pay. Would you deny treatment to those people that can't pay, If so you are part of your own little death board aren't you. Can you ask yourselves why are drugs bought in Canada so much cheaper then the same drugs bought in the US. even though the drugs are manufactured in the US. Why are people who live in country's that have puplic insurance healthier and live longer do some research on it try using information from a neutral not a regressive source.
There are some republican right wing regressive's that are stalling health care as a way of breaking President Obama at the expense of America I am urging my representative to defeat them.

Anonymous said...

More and more I feel frustration that those for whom we voted in the last election do not understand what we voted for. We voted for relief from the abomination of those legislators who vote to suit the "suits" and the lobbyists and the CEO's rather than the voting public. Why must we go to the streets to convince them to do the right thing? Right now Americans are dying from the absence of affordable medical treatment. Why do Americans have to choose between losing their homes or losing their lives? The legisators from my state are generally with us. Those of you whose legislators are stalling need to get active. Move out of your armchairs and get noticed.

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