Johnson County, Missouri resident and nursing professional Susan Morgan addressed the crowd at the start of the health care reform march in Warrensburg on Wednesday evening.

Our previous coverage: “It floors me how absolutely brilliantly broken our system is.”

…We have gathered here this evening because we have a firm commitment to health care reform. [voices: “Yeah!”] It is time for our voices to be heard. [voice: “Absolutely!”][applause]

We recognize that a reformed system focused on primary care, prevention and chronic disease management is the right prescription, the right treatment [voice: “Yeah.”], the right thing to do. It is time for our voices to be heard.

We believe that health care reform must include a public plan option [voice: “Yeah!”] that will [cheers] allow affordable health care [heckler, shouting: “(inaudible) from a teleprompter.”], a public plan option that will promote needed competition [voice: “Yes.”] in the current for profit health insurance market, a public plan that will guarantee the availability of quality, affordable coverage for families and individuals. It is time for our voices to be heard. [cheers]….

….We cannot in good conscience continue to stand by while health care insurance companies decide who will receive treatment and who will not, who will be covered and who will not [voice: “Yeah!”], who will be paid and who will not, who will live and who will die. [cheers] We cannot continue to see the ranks of the uninsured and under insured grow and the number of health care related bankruptcies increase. It is time for our voices to be heard.

We know there is no acceptable justification, no acceptable rationale, for the wealthiest country in the world to deny its citizens basic health care. We know health care is a fundamental right. And it’s time for our voices to be heard. [voice: “Yeah!][applause][cheers][voice: “Get ’em, girl!”]

Opponents say health care reform is moving too fast. Well, where have they been for the last twelve years? Where were they in two thousand and seven when more than twelve million Americans were denied care or charged a higher premium for pre-existing conditions? Where were they in two thousand and six when nearly one point three million full time workers lost their health care insurance? Where were they during the years that health care premiums for employers increased a hundred and nineteen percent and and a hundred and seventeen percent for employees? It’s time for our voices to be heard. [voices: “yeah!”][cheers][applause][voice: “Absolutely!”]

Opponents, and we see them here, say that health care reform will negatively impact current health care insurance companies. And well it should! [voice: “Absolutely!”][cheers] The current health care insurance system is a system designed to maximize profit for those in control, not to maximize health care for those in need. Companies who have realized unbelievable profits over the years by hand picking who they will insure, by denying coverage of care as a matter of policy, by inflicting untold amounts of frivolous paper work upon health care providers and patients alike, and who have made payment for covered services an exercise in persistence for patients, these types of companies need to be impacted negatively [voices: “yeah!”] [cheers][applause]. It is time for our voices to be heard.

Opponents say if you are under insured or uninsured rely on your neighbor when a health care crises occurs [laughter]. This is offered as a solution to health care reform. Well, I have news for them, neighbors already help neighbors and they do so whether neighbors have health insurance or not. It is time for our voices to be heard.

Opponents who truly have no interest in health care reform, just a dislike of the government in general as a basic philosophy, and a strong desire to have a duly elected popular President fail. These people have used health care forums to shout down those who support health care reform. They have no justification for opposing health care reform, no justification, other than the generalized statement that they want government out of their lives. Apparently, they are not concerned that some unknown health care insurance employee or executive is already in their lives. [voice: “Hey, I got a question for you. Who would Jesus turn down because of pre-existing (inaudible)?”] Apparently, these people trust the government to fight a war on their behalf but not to provide health care. It is time for our voices to be heard. [voices: “Yeah!]

Opponents are desperate [cheers]. Opponents are desperate [applause]. We see that desperation in the erroneous information that they have created and spread and of the use of unjustified fear. They have no reasonable justification to oppose health care reform so they have made up false reasons, [sound of arguments in background] deliberate misinterpretations or outright lies. There is no death panel, there is no pulling the plug on grandma, there is no provision for health care for illegal immigrants and yes, if you are happy with your current health care plan you can keep it. [cheers][applause] It’s time for our voices to be heard. [applause]

Health care is a fundamental human right [voice: “Yes it is!”] and health care reform is a moral imperative. [sound of arguments in background] The need for health care cannot be ignored, it cannot wait for obstructionists to suddenly decide to be bipartisan, it cannot wait for next year or the year after. The time for health care reform is now. [voice: “Right!”] End the debate and take action. It is time for our voices to be heard. [voices: “Yeah.” “Yes.”] And let’s get our voices heard [cheers]…

This was one of the funniest moments of the evening’s events. The health care reform supporter (left) turned to the health care reform opponent (right) and said, “This is our rally, why don’t you go do your own…?”