Health Care Demonstration in Ohio: 'Free Speech Free-for-All'

It may have been democracy in action, but it wasn't pretty. Demonstrators on both sides of the health care issue tried to shout each other down Tuesday outside the Columbus, Ohio, offices of Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy.

At one point, some in the group opposed to the Democrats' reform plan appeared to lecture and mock a man who held a green placard saying he had Parkinson's disease. "If you are looking for a handout, you are in the wrong end of town," one guy told the man with the placard. Another person could be seen in Columbus Dispatch video throwing dollar bills at the unidentified man, who was sitting on the ground.

The Dispatch said "hundreds" took part in the rally, shouting, "Kill the bill" -- or from the other side, "Health care now." One opponent wore a "Palin for President" shirt. Some advocates wore union T-shirts.

Despite the raucous scene, which the video narrator described as a "free speech free-for-all zone," some of those who turned out were ready for more thoughtful debate.

The bill is "a good start," Jeff Stevens of Columbus told the newspaper. "We need to keep costs down."

"The fallacy is that people are not getting care. People are getting care. We are taking care of patients," said Dr. Daniel Evans, a Columbus cardiologist who is against the bill in Congress.

Kilroy, a liberal first-term Democrat, has not said how she will vote on final passage in the U.S. House.

In a separate rally Tuesday on Capitol Hill, several hundred protesters, some affiliated with the Tea Party movement, demonstrated against the health care bill.