By Harold Egeln
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BAY RIDGE – Led by a high-school student, the Brooklyn Republican Party and its leaders held a rally against the healthcare reform bill passed in the House, denouncing it as “socialism� and calling upon the Senate to pass a measure more akin to GOP liking.

After reading foreign headlines indicating discontent with European and Canadian national health care systems and quoting warnings about socialism, a student who would identified himself only as Robert bellowed, “Mr. Obama, tear up this bill!�

The teen, warning that healthcare quality under the current healthcare reform legislation would go down and a new government bureaucracy would rise, only identified himself as a student from a local high school. That is likely Xaverian High School, which has an informal group of young Republicans.

As three fellow teens played instruments to begin the event on Sunday afternoon in John Paul Jones (Cannonball) Park, Chair Craig Eaton of the Brooklyn GOP told the gathering of about 60 people that the teen approached the party, asking for its help in organizing an event.

The event came a few weeks after Democrat Michael McMahon held a town hall in this community drawing an orderly but earnest crowd of over 350 people, many of whom called for the public option – the right to choose a government plan rather than a private insurer. McMahon was among the 215, mostly Republicans, who voted against the controversial bill. He had reservations about the impact on small business,

“It’s a Democratic takeover of the economy,� charged Eaton, calling for “common-sense� healthcare reform that does not hurt small business and drive competitive private healthcare insurers out of business. “Under this plan Medicare is in jeopardy,� he said, calling for more emphasis on “liability reform.�

The current bill and its portent for healthcare reform will drive the nation further deeper into debt, said state Sen. Marty Golden, raising one of several red flags against the bill. He wanted “common-sense reform� rather than a bill that promises “higher taxes.�

“Individuals will be forced to purchase insurance. If not, they’ll have to pay a fine,� Golden said. “It could result in jail for those failing to pay premiums.�

“If we keep the public option, more people will be going into the public option and less going into Empire, HIP and Blue Shield, forcing those companies to raise their rates,� Golden warned. “Do we deserve a one-payer system? We have the best health care system in the world!�

Noting the long-range gloomy forecasts about the financing of government-run Medicare and Social Security, “which we’ve got to make better and keep them better,� Golden then painted a fearful image of the House bill’s impact on business.

“If you force business and stores into taking an insurance policy, that means less employees. We’re in a jobless economic recovery now,� said Golden, warning that businesses would suffer and may close down. “We cannot force healthcare reform down everybody’s throat.�

Dr. Joseph Caruana of Dyker Heights called for tort reform and for protecting private insurers. Doctors now order MRI for headaches they cannot find a cause for, he said, and that drives up health costs with “$200 billion spent yearly on defensive medicine.�

Brooklyn GOP Youth Advocate Leslie Rice, a mother whose 4-year-old boy has asthma, continued the warnings. “My insurance company will find it easier to pay a flat fee and that would force me on the public option. Private competition will be eliminated. I will pay for it. My son will pay for it.�

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