President Obama lands in Belgrade for town hall meeting

BELGRADE — Right and left, with signs and without, members of the public started showing up just after 7 a.m. Friday morning at Gallatin Field airport to make their presence — and opinions — known to President Barack Obama.

From the simple “Single-payer health care” posters that several Park County residents held to the “No Obamacare” proclamation displayed by a Billings man, political views varied widely along the road leading to an airport hangar where Obama was to speak later in the day.

Obama on Friday hosted a town hall meeting, scheduled to begin after The Enterprise’s deadline.

The Belgrade stop was part of his tour through several Western states in the coming days to promote his proposed health care reform plan. Friday’s speech focused on the plan’s components that would prohibit insurance companies from decreasing or eliminating coverage for those people who become critically ill.

In conjunction with the White House and the office of Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the cities of Belgrade and Bozeman on Thursday distributed about 1,000 free town hall meeting tickets to citizens who lined up outside the towns’ city halls. Airport officials, though, on Thursday estimated that the crowd could swell to 5,000, with people standing on the road and in parking lots near the hangar.

Several members of Park County’s Montanans for Single Payer, a group that supports a single-payer health care system, arrived early Friday morning, signs and bumper stickers in hand. They nabbed a prominent spot near the main road leading to the hangar.

“That’s the only solution,” said Don McLarty, of Pray, as he looked down at the “single payer health care” sticker he held.

McLarty, 68, is a retired recreation guide who said he’s been without health insurance nearly all of his life due to the cost.

“The first health insurance I got was when I was 65,” he said. “It was Medicare. I love it.”

A major insurance company had offered him coverage — with the exception of covering preexisting conditions — when he was 64, he said. But with the cost and the preexisting conditions stipulation, he decided to wait for Medicare he said. And at 65, he had a heart attack, the health care costs of which were largely covered by the federal program.

“If I had had to pay the (full bill),” he said, “it would have wiped me out.”

Montanans for Single Payer members said they opted to stand outside rather than attend the town hall because they hoped doing so would show their support for such a reform.

They also wanted to let the president know that they don’t agree with his proposed reform, nor do they support leaving the country’s health care system as is, several members said.

“We wanted to stand up for a third alternative,” said Linda Kenoyer of Livingston, a spokeswoman for the group. “We’re not supporting Obama’s proposals — we see his proposals as a gift to the insurance companies.”

His proposal would perpetuate “keeping private health insurance companies in the center” of the health care system, and those companies deny coverage and care, said Kenoyer, a 54-year-old retired physicist.

Down the road from Kenoyer stood Joe Bailey, of Billings, who held his “No Obamacare” poster and several other signs protesting Obama’s policies.

Bailey, a 29-year-old engineer, is a member of the Montana Shrugged Group, a Billings organization that promotes limited government and is modeled after “tea party” groups across the nation. Bailey said he expected about 100 Montana Shrugged members would arrive before the event’s end.

He and other group members, some of whom said they have private health insurance and some of whom said they do not, said they oppose the president’s health care proposal.

“Be careful what you wish for,” Bailey said. “If you think health care is expensive now, wait till it’s free.”

Other people gathered outside waiting for Obama, many of whom were ticket-holders to the event, weren’t sure how they feel about the health care issue.

“I’m pretty undecided,” said Steve Rogers, a 21-year-old college student who drove from Powell, Wyo., to attend the event. “And I hope this debate today will give me some insight into how I feel about it.”

Some protestors said they were in Bozeman to voice opposition to Obama’s philosophies and proposals as a whole.

“I don’t agree with anything he says,” said Jane Starr-Drowne, a 62-year-old interior designer from Bigfork. “So it was time to come — I’ve yelled at the television long enough.”

Contact: ceasterling@livent.net

Published 8.14.2009