Dozens attend people's town hall

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - The health care reform debate continued Saturday with another area town hall meeting.

This one took place at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Fort Wayne and was organized by Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan: an Indiana group in support of universal health care.

The group invited area lawmakers, but none showed up. Some in attendance preferred it that way.

"Everything that you've been seeing on the news, as far as town halls and everything, I didn't know what to expect."

"This was a pleasant forum today, " said Janet Gratigny. "I'm sure that if there were some politicians here that it would've gotten a little bit more rowdy."

Instead, medical professionals like Dr. Jonathan Walker from Allen County Retinal Surgeons, took questions from the audience and offered a more personal perspective on the health care industry.

"In my practice everyday I see people literally going blind, even dying, because they couldn't get access to healthcare. And they're not bad people. They didn't make bad decisions, they just had really bad luck," said Walker. "I think if everyone saw what I saw, we'd probably try to work better to take care of everyone."

Although the event was hosted by a group in support of universal health care, there were plenty of differing opinions at the town hall. For those like Gratingny, the town hall was a breath of fresh air.

"There's just a lot of people out there that really take the word of mouth. And they're not really going directly to the source to find out what's going on," said Gratingny. "I learned that this is a lot bigger than what I had originally thought."