Columbus Dispatch – Supporters of federal health-care reforms ran a victory lap through central Ohio yesterday, promising to push for additional measures such as a public-insurance option or single-payer health system while characterizing the bill signed into law last week as monumental.

U.S. Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy, D-Columbus, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, faced friendly crowds as they touted the benefits of health reforms to union members and retirees at two events in Columbus.

Signs of dissent were never far away, however. While Kilroy and Brown addressed about 200 people at an evening rally at Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 189, a much smaller group of protesters waved signs in a parking lot across the street. The rally itself included no visible dissent, with the only "boos" reserved for critics of the health-care bill such as House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester.

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Brown called the health-care reforms the most important cause since civil rights in the 1960s.

"The main reason people are living longer is because of activists and progressives getting the government to fight for things that matter to them," the senator said.

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