The president/CEO of a Minnesota credit union wants more CU leaders to get involved in the health care reform debate, notwithstanding "the shouting and the rudeness" at the town hall meetings.
Though Kelly McDonough, head of the $106 million First Alliance CU of Rochester, has yet to find herself anywhere close to one of those raucous sessions, she already participated in a private "kitchen table" meeting at a Rochester home, hand-picked by her congressman.
Based on her own readings of the health care reform bills and the need for CEOs "to comment on a subject which directly affects their employees and the bottom line," she is prepared to attend or perhaps speak out at the first local town hall gathering in Mankato Aug. 20.
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She attended an Aug. 11 private home gathering sponsored by U.S. Rep. Tim Walz (D), joining a group of six of the lawmaker's constituents "offering their perspectives on America's health care system."
McDonough, who said she favors many parts of the House and Senate bills, said CEOs in Minnesota and elsewhere need to get engaged in the debate "as part of the democratic process" and for CUs' self-interest based on soaring benefit costs.
"Over the last five years, the smallest increase in our health insurance costs was 9% and it has gone as high as 26%, and that's something we can't sustain," said McDonough, who is a member of the Political Involvement Committee of the Minnesota Credit Union Network.
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