Tuesday (yesterday) I sent a letter to the editors of eleven newspapers in my state. It was a letter to my congressional delegation, all seven of the buggers. I checked this morning, none published it. Maybe I'll give them some more time. But I'm not holding out much hope. You see, I want them to vote in the interest of "Ma Fellow Amuricuns", as Johnson used to say, instead of in the interest of those who profit from limiting health care coverage.
This blog was foisted upon the mostly ignoring public out of my frustration with the determined ignorance of the majority of voters in my state and the unwillingness of my reps (and apparently newspapers) to enlighten them.
I've been reading some letters to the editor from various locations across the state. Most decry the "socialism" approach, citing (incredibly in public!) that they had health insurance through their employer and health care reform was not needed. A few brave souls venture to opine
the system wasn't working for millions and perhaps we might get something that would.
My letter:
To the [REDACTED] Congressional Delegation,
My reason for writing is to penetrate the spin din and give you one [REDACTED] taxpayer’s perspective on health insurance reform.
My family is fortunate enough to have health insurance paid for by my employer. It’s not great coverage but so far, it works for us. We’re healthy, take reasonably good care of ourselves--commuting on I-35 is the most hazardous thing we do. In short, we’re OK. We’ve got it covered. I figure our insurance company makes money on us. It’s “others” that I’m mostly concerned about, the “un-“ and “under-“ insured.
Part of the cost of health care has to do with folks who can’t afford health insurance--those who appear at emergency rooms already half dead with problems that are made far more dire and difficult through cost-related neglect. They often can’t pay for those services driving up costs for everyone else. There are other hidden costs to account for.
Virtually everything we purchase has health care costs embedded in the price. Companies who provide health insurance for their employees pass the cost along to consumers. Bankruptcies and foreclosures brought on by catastrophic medical events increase the price of goods and services and drives up credit card interest. Debilitating illnesses go untreated because of the high cost of health care and results in the loss of worker hours and a drag on the economy. No one can argue that the system works for all, and there are millions for whom it doesn’t work at all. It’s like being hit by an uninsured or under-insured driver.
You see, all of us end up some of everybody’s health care bills anyway, but we currently handle it with a lot more physical and financial suffering. Why can’t we solve this problem? It seems fairer, more efficient and cost effective to cut out the “middle men” and provide access to quality health care for Americans, all of us.
The lack of civil discourse when discussing health insurance reform is disgusting. A barrage of deafening and deceitful sound bites, wildly exaggerated numbers and false claims do the electorate a disservice. I’m insulted and disappointed. I do not fear health insurance reform; I fear that it won’t happen and for the sorriest of reasons. I fear the disaster awaiting us without reform.
The facts lead me to conclude that a vote against health insurance reform legislation is a vote against a prosperous and healthy American future and for more profiteering on the backs of its citizenry. A vote against reform is a vote for holding the health insurance industry harmless, an industry that has failed at health care management but excelled at profit-making and Congress-controlling. Add the behavior of big pharma over the last ten years, with their price gouging and slight-of-hand patent scamming and you have an outrageous, scandalous blot on our national character.
It’s un-American to allow this callous discrimination and blatant manipulation to continue. It’s immoral for health care to be doled out according to one’s economic status or preexisting conditions. Congress appears to be emasculated and immobilized by the health industry, more interested in campaign coffers than their constituents’ welfare.
The lack of interest in negotiation or compromise indicates cowardice in the face of the hysterical, fear-mongering onslaught funded by the insurance and pharmaceutical industry and aided and abetted by politicians in their pockets. Where’s the courage to do what’s right for the American people, to be the boulder that we can use to cross the river to a better future instead a floating leaf swept along with the current, useless—here today, gone today?
