The three Democrats vying for Iowa’s First District congressional seat in eastern Iowa met last night in a forum in Waterloo. The forum focused on medical issues. Anne Hutchinson says in her experience as Mayor of Bettendorf, and as the owner of a small mortgage company, she has seen health care rates rise anywhere from 17 to 35-percent. Hutchinson says it’s a complex problem and admits no one has all the answers.Hutchinson says Congress needs people who’re willing to look at everything in finding a compromise. Former Congressman Dave Nagle says it’s dangerous to consider everything because there are now more than 600 lobbyists for pharmaceutical companies alone.He says we’re in crisis because “hard rights” have decided medical professionals are in competition with each other. He says we have to change our way of thinking about the medical profession.Nagle says that’s the first thing he’d change along with making the reimbursement formula equal nationwide. Denny Heath of Clinton says he’s interested in passing a nation health plan. Heath says Americans live in a bubble.He says we don’t see what’s happening in the rest of the world and he says unless we curb the world population, we’re going to be in huge trouble as a planet. The winner of the democratic primary will face incumbent republican Jim Nussle.
