According to a recent poll by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, the public is evenly split between support and opposition of the recently adopted national health legislation. Some Americans were pleased, others angry, but mostly they were confused. .

A forum will be held Wednesday, May 26, at 7 p.m. in the Bryd Center for Legislative Studies on the campus of Shepherd University in Shepherdstown. Perry Bryant, Executive Director of West Virginians for Affordable Health Care, will present an overview and highlights of the act. Dr. David Baltierra, Program Director of the WVU Rural Family Medicine Residency in Harpers Ferry and a member of Physicians for a National Health Program, will talk about the new law’s limitations. Members of the audience will have an opportunity to ask questions.

“The forum is part of a public education campaign. Our goal is to provide solid, objective information about the act. What it does. What it doesn’t do,” agreed Bryant and Baltierra.

The program, which is free and open to the public, is cosponsored by the Eastern Panhandle Free Clinic, Eastern Panhandle Single-Payer Action Network, Jefferson County Chapter of the NAACP, League of Women Voters of Jefferson County, and the National Association of Social Workers West Virginia Chapter.

In addition to the Wednesday May 26 evening forum, Perry Bryant will present an overview and highlights of the new law as it applies to Medicare and seniors at the Jefferson County Senior Center in Ranson from 11:00 to Noon on Wednesday, May 26. Guests may stay for lunch, which costs $2. He will also provide an overview at the Berkeley County Senior Center in Martinsburg on Thursday, May 27, at 11 a.m.

He will be at the Eastern Panhandle Free Clinic in Ranson at 9 a.m. on Thursday, May 27, to talk to staff in the fields of health and human services as well as to the public.

– More information is available from

(304) 876-3158.