Healdsburg's Kurt Hahn Among North Bay GOP to Go to Tampa

Kurt Hahn of Healdsburg is one of six North Bay GOP delegates to attend the Tampa Bay Republican National Convention this coming week.

Hahn, 74, board chair for the and retired Healdsburg finance/economic development director, will attend as a Mitt Romney alternate delegate from California.

"I was surprised and very honored to be selected," Hahn said. 

According to the Press Democrat, five other North Bay Republicans will also be attending the Tampa Bay convention as delegates.

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Hahn, meanwhile, said that although he has not been involved in partisan politics for most of his career, he is compelled to make an exception this year.

"My reasons for even getting involved this year center on three issues," Hahn added. He said those issues were:

--(1) I am personally concerned that the uncontrolled federal spending and debt levels will mean that my 11 grandchildren will be unable to equal or better what their parents have been able to achieve;

--(2) That the current state of our nation's economy is so bad that only some dramatic changes will correct the economic atmosphere including regulatory, business and job creation climate;

--(3) The rationing of healthcare to seniors under the Affiordable Care Act, sometimes called Obamacare, threatens me and my fellow seniors ad I think I have a duty to speak up.

"Those who say there are no cuts in benefits or increased costs for Medicare under Obamacare are dead wrong," Hahn said. "The $156 billion reduction in Medicare Advantage Plan reinbursements under the Affordable Care Act alone will mean every Kaiser Medicare Advantage enrollee will see increased premium costs equal to several thousand dollars per year as will all AARP Medicare Advantage enrollees.

"Under Obamacare, your access to specialists at, for example, university teaching hospitals like Stanford or UC San Francisco will be severly curtailed under the new Accountable Care Organizations much as we saw HMO restrict access a few years back," he added. "These are benefits that can mean the difference between life and death for many patients."  

Hahn noted that "while we certainly need some insurance reforms I think we need to repeal Obamacare first,"  he said.