BRISTOL, Tenn. Congressmen Morgan Griffith and Phil Roe shared the stage at the Paramount Center Wednesday night to field questions during a town hall event. <\/p>\n
Topics given to the two lawmakers during the forum included sequestration, Obamacare, the handling of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi last September and the decision to allow women on the battlefield. <\/p>\n
Roe, R-1st, who also has a medical practice in Johnson City, says from the time the Affordable Health Care Act was ruled constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, businesses and individuals have been preparing for the fallout and subsequent insurance rates for planning purposes. <\/p>\n
He says the wait will be hard for those in the states that he and Griffith, R-9th, represent, and not because both state governments have rejected the current guidelines for the plan and the federal dollars that come with them. <\/p>\n
A Kaiser Family Foundation survey taken last month and released on Wednesday showed 42 percent of Americans dont know that the Affordable Health Care Act had been became law, and 58 percent of uninsured citizens dont have enough information to know how the plan works or how it affects them. <\/p>\n
It doesnt say a lot about my intelligence, but I read that entire 2,700-page bill (on health care reform). It has 20,000 rules, Roe said. I cannot tell my own employees on Oct. 1 what their insurance is going to cost them and how theyll get it. Thats how confusing this thing is. <\/p>\n
Griffith described the situation of a 26-year-old voter who told him about the economic hardship she is facing due to the health care law. The woman is a full-time student and has a full-time job, but because she is working full-time, she can no longer be carried under her familys health insurance plan under the new law, Griffith said. <\/p>\n
I can see this plan and this law falling like a house of cards. Something is found to be flawed or stripped away every day, he said. <\/p>\n
A retired Marine lieutenant colonel from Bristol, who did not give his name, asked the congressmen if the change in Pentagon policy by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta that lifted the ban on women on the front lines of battle could be repealed. <\/p>\n
There are physical standards for military service and you dont change those standards, and you let the chips fall. I think the service branches will make those decisions, and I think there is a question if you change those, Roe said. <\/p>\n
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