WKRN, Nashville, Tennessee News, Weather, and Sports |Tennesseans anticipate health care reform vote

Tennesseans anticipate health care reform vote

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The drama surrounding the health care reform vote is playing out in Washington D.C., but what will it mean for Tennesseans if the bill passes?

Laura Dickenson, the Vice President of the Tennessee Tea Party said, "We are not here because we are against health care reform. We are against this health care reform, and we don't want to have so much government involved in our lives."

Tea Party supporters gathered at Tennessee's capitol hill over the weekend, holding signs, protesting the health care reform bill being debated.

Greg Updike said, "I'm not saying insurance companies or drug companies are innocent. I am saying they need to be regulated and not controlled and mandated to."

Tony Garr, executive director of the Tennessee Health Care Campaign, said this health care bill will have a significant impact on the lives of Tennesseans.

"What this bill will do is provide guaranteed affordable coverage for 3 million Tennesseans," said Garr, "This fear mongering around socialized medicine, government takeover, all of that is so not true."

With this bill, Garr said millions of Tennesseans who get health insurance through their employers won't have to worry about being covered if they lose their jobs.

"That sense of guaranteed security that people in this country don't have, that Tennesseans don't have, will happen," he said.

Tea party members say that it's not the idea of health care reform they're against; it's this specific version they do not agree with.

"You pay for car, you pay for gas, it's car maintenance, you pay for that," Updike told News 2, "You don't need the government mandating and manipulating every aspect of your health care."

But Garr said, "People are going to realize, maybe this wasn't a bad thing. This is a good thing, not only good for Tennessee, but good for my family."

No matter which way you lean, there's no question that both sides of the issue will be watching Washington closely Sunday night.