Health Care Advocates from Across the City will be Attending Congressman Cao's Forum, and Asking Hard Questions

Congressman Anh “Joseph” Cao, who dodged last week’s Community Conversation on Health Care, has announced a public health care forum for tomorrow night. Congressman Cao apparently decided last week’s conversation – which filled a church in Gentilly - was not important enough for him to attend, but was still a good enough idea for him to present something very similar.

Tomorrow night’s forum, like last week’s event, features a panel of health care experts, including: Nancy Cassagne, CEO of West Jefferson Medical Center; Mary Joseph, Director of the Katrina Resource and Referral Project at the Children’s Defense Fund; and Judge Calvin Johnson. The panel will take questions from forum attendees, and be moderated by WBOK’s Gerod Stevens.

Anyone concerned about health care in New Orleans, and what our elected representatives are doing about it, should be there, and be prepared to ask Congressman Cao the hard questions he has been dodging. If anyone knows the need for health care reform, its residents of Louisiana; our state is number 50 in most measures of health care quality and access.

Local activist Eli Ackerman has listed some questions for Cao on his blog. As Ackerman says, “Congressman Cao has developed the habit of not taking positions on issues (think stimulus) before he votes the reactionary position with his Party's leaders. It is important that meeting attendees make a real effort to force Mr. Cao to explain what he believes, how he plans to vote, and why.”

Cao’s forum will be Thursday, September 3, at 6:00 p.m, at H.C. Schaumburg Elementary School, 9501 Grant Street – in New Orleans East. For some background, check out the Louisiana Justice Institute’s "Healthcare: Myths vs. Facts" Powerpoint and factsheet, here.