Philip D. Brown

Richmond County Daily Journal

The City of Rockingham’s downtown parking lot will be the site of a political rally against government-controlled healthcare at 3 p.m. Tuesday.

The issue of health reform has served as a lightning-rod issue over recent weeks and months, as Congress has responded to pressure from the Obama Administration to push through changes.

The question garnering the most attention in the debate is whether the government should offer “a public option,” and what the implications of such action would be on the national budget deficit, individual privacy and the healthcare industry as a whole.

The rally is part of conservative group Americans For Prosperity Patients First bus tour, which also made a stop in Aberdeen last month.

It is touting this new tour as a chance to communicate opposition to elected federal officials before they return to Washington, D.C. after the legislative recess.

The group said the tour is intended to “urge grassroots activists to speak out on behalf of patients and against a government takeover.”

“As we have seen all across North Carolina, Americans are fired up about health care, and the bus tour gives more people the opportunity to come out and get involved,” said State Director of Americans for Prosperity and Patients First Dallas Woodhouse.

The release said the tour will include grassroots activists, medical professionals, local officials, doctors and patients.

The parking lot location appears to have been chosen due to its proximity to 8th District U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell’s office, who held a town hall meeting in Wadesboro last week where he appeared to be riding the fence on how he would vote if and when legislation is introduced.

“I’m not going to say I completely trust the insurance companies to give us a fair deal because they haven’t in the past,” Kissell told the approximately 60 people in attendance, according to The Anson Record. “But, once again, I’m going to wait for ... a final version of the bill. I didn’t commit that I would vote for the public option and I’m not going to commit the other way.”

He did, however, say any reform measure he would vote for would have to be “budget neutral.”

Woodhouse said a public option would irrevocably change the way people access healthcare.

“These proposals would change everything about healthcare as we know it. Instead of patients and doctors making decisions, it would be government bureaucrats,” he said in the release. “We’ve got to let lawmakers know that the American people simply don’t want a government takeover of their healthcare.”

After departing from Rockingham, another rally is planned for 5 p.m. in Laurinburg.

Following these dates, the bus will move onto Lumberton, Smithfield and Goldsboro Wednesday, before holding a town hall meeting in the Kerr Scott Building at the state fairgrounds in Raleigh at 8 p.m.