Sherrod Brown gets an earful at health insurance reform meeting; announces $14 million in biomedical grants

CINCINNATI, Ohio — Sen. Sherrod Brown heard from Ohioans who are having trouble paying their health care insurance at a contentious town hall-style meeting on health insurance reform Tuesday morning at the University of Cincinnati.

A small business owner told Brown about how premiums and deductibles for employee health insurance have spiraled upward in recent years, according to a press release from his office. Brown also heard from a person who is employed full-time but is unable to get insurance because of a pre-existing medical condition, a young man who can’t get insurance because of his medical history, and a family member of a man who had to sell his belongings to pay his hospital bills.

According to reports from the Cincinnati Enquirer, Cleveland Plain Dealer and Associated Press/Fox8 News, the meeting was boisterous and sometimes close to being out of control. Those who support health care reform and those who oppose it were well-represented, according to the media reports.

During the meeting, Brown, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, outlined how he believes the committee’s proposed legislation would reduce private insurance premiums and out-of-pocket health care expenses, while giving Americans more affordable private and public insurance options during periods of unemployment.

On Friday, Brown announced the destinations for $14 million in federal stimulus money for biomedical research through National Institutes of Health grants:

• Case Western Reserve University: $3.2 million
• Ohio State University: $3.7 million
• University of Cincinnati: $3 million
• Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center: $2.9 million
• Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine: $288,916
• University of Toledo: $117,533
• Wright State University: $221,238
• The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital: $687,693

You can watch the entire Brown health-care town hall online.

[Photo courtesy of Flickr user aflcio2008]