Despite the problems he has making ends meet and doing without private insurance, you can take Lamberth's picture off that health care reform poster.
"I believe that people should try to make do with what they have, and I already have enough help from the government," he said. "Together with Medicare and Social Security and what savings we have, we make do."
With that mindset, it's therefore not surprising that he opposed efforts by Obama and the Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate to conduct a massive reform of the nation's health care system to a new system in which the government and taxpayers will play a large role.
"I'm opposed to an overhaul of the health care system," he said. "People need to stop asking for too much from the government and need to do a little more for themselves.
"A lot of people want this overhaul, but I don't," he added. "I guess I'm old-fashioned."
Lamberth was one of about a dozen people interviewed Thursday morning in the parking lot of a local shopping center about the current push for major reforms of the health care system.
Like Lamberth, most were leery to one degree or another of the federal government having too much involvement in the system. Unlike Lamberth, most acknowledged there needs to be some reforms, if not an overhaul.
Most said they watched the president's televised press conference Wednesday, most of which dealt with health care reform.
High premiums
Pat Hughes of Junction City said health care insurance premiums have become "outrageous."
"It costs $600 just for me, and my husband's premium is high, too, but not as high as mine," she said.
Hughes said she favors reforms that would make health insurance more affordable. But she said she doesn't want the government to run the system.
"There needs to be changes that would allow people in the lower and middle classes to be able to pay for health insurance without going broke," she said. "But it should not be a system that's totally run by the government."
For Amy Rowland of Danville, health care coverage for her, her husband and their four children has been both affordable and high quality.
Rowland's husband has a Blue Cross-Blue Shield family policy through his employer that includes a health savings account.
"At the beginning of the year, my husband puts in $1,200 a year into the account and then $75 a month, and we use the HSA funds mainly to cover doctor's visits and prescription drugs and other expenses," she said. "The HSA may not be enough for people whose prescriptions cost a lot but it has been great for what we need."
While she wouldn't want her family's health care coverage to be reformed, she realizes that "something needs to be done" so that more people have access to the kind of coverage her family receives.
"Maybe there should be more competition between insurance companies," she said. "I don't know if it would be a good idea to get the government too involved."
Terry Cornish of Mercer County said he favors "some reform" of the health care system but is not convinced that what the president and many in the House and Senate are pushing is what's needed.
"I agree with the idea the everybody should be able to access affordable health care, but I think that can be better accomplished through more competition between private insurance companies and perhaps some legislation that would keep costs under control," he said.
Private health insurance
Brian Terwilliger of Casey County would like to have some of that private health insurance coverage now.
He recently was laid of from his job, and has exhausted his eligibility for the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act program. COBRA gives workers and their families who lose their health benefits the right to choose to continue group health benefits provided by their group health plan for limited periods of time under certain circumstances.
"My wife and I have four children, the latest born last weekend, and we now have no health coverage," he said.
