Reid on stump in Pahrump

A group favoring House Bill HR 676 staked its claim along Highway 160.

HR 676, is the National Health Insurance Act, introduced by Congressman John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., who represents Detroit. Conyers' Web site states the bill's purpose is "to ensure that every American, regardless of income, employment status, or race, has access to quality, affordable health care services."

According to organizer Margery Kay Behrens, who has lived in Pahrump for 15 years, "Organizing for America has requested our presence to greet Harry Reid and the tea baggers with signs, banners and 'tea'-shirts in support of HR 676, single-payer health care."

Disabled Vietnam veteran Oscar Guajareo was with Behrens, holding a professionally printed sign supporting Latinos for Obama. "Medicare, Medicaid and the VA are all run by the government," he said. "So the concept that the government can't run anything is not true. I don't know what I would be able to do without my VA and Medicare."

Guajareo moved to Pahrump about 10 years ago and has a daughter attending Floyd Elementary School. "When I was in the military," he said, "they were very good to me."

Sara Mendez said she is transplanted Canadian. "I have a sister with skin grafts and she didn't have to pay a penny because she pays about $36 a month for health care." Mendez also mentioned a brother in Canada who had an aorta replaced without paying anything.

Her husband, Bill Mendez, said Spain is rated seventh for their health care by the World Health Organization. He quoted a Spanish doctor as saying, "There is no such thing as being socialist in medicine -- we are humanistic." The Mendez' have lived in Pahrump for two years.