Published: August 07, 2009 03:42 pm      

Calls swamp Indiana Rep. Baron Hill's offices

Ninth District Hoosiers — and others from around the country — are flooding congressional telephone lines with calls about proposed health care reforms.

“We’re getting hit from the left and the right,” Katie Moreau said Thursday. She’s press officer for Indiana 9th District Rep. Baron Hill. So far the Seymour Democrat has no town hall-style meetings set in the district while home for Congress’ August recess.

But four days into the recess, Hill has been meeting with doctors and other health care providers, hospital administrators, small business owners and local chambers of commerce, including sessions in Monroe and Harrison counties, Moreau said.

“Our intention is to have a forum where people can relay their concerns and issues in a productive and civil manner,” Moreau said.

As cable news has been reporting with submitted videos in recent days, the reception some members of Congress have been receiving at town hall meetings has at times been less than civil.

Hill’s offices in Washington, D.C., Jeffersonville, Bloomington and Seymour have been swamped with calls, Moreau said, with many of them coming from out of state.

“I’ve never seen that before,” Moreau said. “I’m frustrated that district constituents that are supposed to be calling us are getting automatically pushed into voicemail because of the volume of out-of-state calls. We’re having to listen to voicemail every 20 minutes or so.”

Other congressional offices are also receiving similar calls, she said. She attributes part of those out-of-state calls to Hill’s association with the so-called Blue Dog coalition of moderate to conservative House Democrats.

What are those many callers saying at Hill’s offices?

“The reaction is very varied,” Moreau said. “Some people are very supportive of his position, like the changes he worked on and secured in the bill. Then other folks are very much upset about health care, cap and trade and a host of things that evolve into some notion of a socialist agenda.”

Moreau said Hill is “committed to health care reform.”

“But he wants to make it the best bill it can be, to make sure people who like their private health insurance can keep it and to provide coverage for those who can't afford it,” she added.

Moreau’s advice to 9th District residents wanting to call Hill’s office is to be patient.

“One of the fundamental rules of this office is that we answer every constituent phone call that comes in no matter if it means sprinting back to your desk,” Moreau said. “But, here’s the hitch — we can only get four calls into our respective offices at a time through our main lines before the other calls are kicked directly into our voicemail.

“We are doing everything possible to make sure that doesn’t happen, but some things are out of our control. In no way is this intentional.”

John McMillen, of Brownstown, said he hopes Hill will make himself available to hear constituents’ concerns.

“I’d like to offer my input relative to the budget and health care,” McMillen, who described himself as an independent, said Thursday.

“I’m a guy on Medicare, and I’m not convinced they’re taking care of that as they should be,” McMillen said. “I’m concerned about changing it. It’s working fine for me. I don't want them to mess with something that's working.”

Also of concern to McMillen is the cost to taxpayers and how older people will be treated in terms of qualifying for care.