SALEM – A little more than a dozen health care reform supporters wielding placards and signs greeted U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg outside of the Ingram Senior Center this morning in the first of two scheduled meetings with voters today.

According to Zandra Rice Hawkins, spokesman for Granite State Progress, the band of supporters were drawn from a coalition of groups – including Planned Parenthood and the SEIU – and had been holding a rally in support of health care reform in the parking lot of the senior center since about 6:30 a.m.

“Our intent is to ask Sen. Gregg some tough policy questions... We would like to ask him why he has remained silent on the phrase 'death panels,' ” Hawkins said before heading into the public forum. “We are ashamed he has not spoken honestly. When you use rhetoric to scare senior citizens and their families it's not helping the healthcare debate.”

Hawkins also criticized Gregg for announcing the public meeting at what she described as the “last minute.”

“He gave much less notice than the president gave to New Hampshire residents when he came to Portsmouth,” she said.

U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg greets about a dozen health care reform supporters outside of the Ingram Senior Center in Salem shortly before the start of his first of two scheduled public meetings on the topic today. (Derrick Perkins photo)

Standing at the bottom of the wheelchair ramp leading into the senior center Salem resident Charlotte Goossens held the lone sign opposing health care legislation. At 75, Goossens said she has no health problems, but receives health care coverage from Medicare and draws on her social security pension. Her experience with both programs has left her skeptical that the federal government can handle running a health care program for all Americans, she said.

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“They aren't doing such a hot job with Medicare,” she said. “When my generation is gone nobody is going to care. I've got 17 grandchildren and I hate to think what will happen to them when they get older. They're going to have to pay it back.”

Goossens said she learned about the forum in the news and came out to share her opinion.

“My husband doesn't even know I'm here,” she said.

Though other town meeting-style events across the country have been marked by passionate outbursts and demonstrations, the only tense moment in Salem arose after Goossens began speaking with a supporter of health care reform, but the back-and-forth argument remained polite.

“Everyone is entitled to their opinion,” she said afterward.

Gregg will speak on the topic a second time today at the Redhook Brewery, Pease International Tradeport, 35 Corporate Drive in Portsmouth at 12:15 p.m. during a luncheon hosted by the Portsmouth Rotary Club.