St. Louis Third District Republican Congressional Candidate Ed Martin Holds Town Hall

St. Louis Third District Republican Congressional candidate Ed Martin held a town hall meeting to discuss his views on health care policy at the Drury Hotel in south St. Louis city Tuesday, August 31. The event was originally planned as a debate, but since Democrat Party incumbent Congressman Russ Carnahan did not attend, Mr. Martin spent about an hour and a half answering written questions submitted by several hundred supporters who were in attendance.

In Mr. Martin's opening remarks, he expressed his concern about the future state of the American health care system as the "baby boomer" generation becomes a larger consumer of private and public health care resources. He feared that under the new health care reform, health care decisions will be made by Washington bureaucrats instead of by patients according to their values of life. When asked specifically about the health care reform act, he said, "I believe we should repeal the '˜ObamaCare' bill, the government takeover of health care, and start again."

He continued along that same vein, adding that the repeal of the health care reform act should be accomplished for two reasons. "First, how it was passed represents a low moment in American history -- The Congress decided, '˜Our will be done' no matter what Americans say." He continued, "The Second reason we should repeal '˜ObamaCare' is that we can't afford it. It is far too expensive and unfair to the many people who have already paid into our system to try to expand the (public) system." Mr. Martin views the health care reform act as an expansion of the public health care entitlement system, and expressed his doubts on the solvency of the current programs even before the full effects of the reforms take effect in future years.

In an effort to be more than "Mr. No," Mr. Martin gave his ideas of what health care reform would look like. "Common sense health care reform includes being able to purchase (insurance) across state lines. Small businesses should be able to pool together to buy insurance as one bargaining unit. It would cost the Congress nothing." He also supports Missouri's Proposition C and other efforts by states to prevent federal mandated insurance contracts on state citizens.

In his closing statement, Mr. Martin expressed his desire to have a series of debates with incumbent Democrat Congressman Russ Carnahan. In the mean time, he pledged to have a continuous dialogue with the citizens of the St. Louis Third Congressional District throughout the election season and beyond, if elected.