When 30-year-old Adira Riben of Monmouth Junction called Rep. Rush Holt to talk about her health insurance problems, he invited her to Washington to hear President Obama's speech as his guest in the House gallery.
According to Holt's office, Riben had to move back to New Jersey to live with family after losing her job in Louisiana. She tried to buy COBRA continuation coverage, but she'd been covered by a Louisiana HMO that only provided benefits down there, so she'd be buying coverage but not be able to use it.
"After the speech, we were waiting to see the president, and [Holt] pointed me out and told [Obama] my story. He shook my hand, gave me a hug, and he said, 'We can do this,'" Riben said afterward.
Riben, who has two chronic health problems, had never attended a speech like that before.
"It seemed powerful, more than seeing it on TV. It seems a lot more concrete when you hear him say it in person," she said.
Holt, D-Hopewell Towship, said he was impressed Obama spent most of his night reading off his left-side teleprompter, which meant he was speaking at the Republican side of the House.
“He was saying, I’m going to work with you, but I’m not going to take any guff. If you want to talk seriously, I’m open to it. If you want to delay, I don’t have any time for you,” Holt said. “In politics, that was pretty strong stuff.”
Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-Paterson, was also proud about the props Obama paid to his guest in the gallery. He invited Wendell Potter, a former public relations executive for the Cigna and Humana health insurance companies.
According to Pascrell’s office, it was Potter Obama was referring to when he was talking about insurance companies denying needed care.
“Insurance executives don’t do this because they are bad people. They do it because it’s profitable. As one former insurance executive testified before Congress, insurance companies are not only encouraged to find reasons to drop the seriously ill; they are rewarded for it. All of this is in service of meeting what this former executive called ‘Wall Street’s relentless profit expectations.'"