This one is an Open Letter to my Congressman, James Moran (D-VA).
Dear Jim,
I feel entitled to address you by your first name because you’ve been my Representative since 1991 and I’ve voted for you in every election since then.
I think the issue of health care reform is where most Americans live. Those who don’t have insurance are shut out of good care. Those who have it are at risk of losing it, or of denial of service at any time. With each passing year health care statistics show that our American system is failing relative to other well-off western nations. Canadians, for instance, have a life expectancy that’s 3 years longer than our own. Their risk of mothers dying in childbirth is one-half of ours. Their infant mortality rate is much lower than ours. Their positive health results don’t begin to measure the advantages they’ve gained over us since they adopted their Medicare for all program in 1966 in the form of more competitive businesses, reduced bankruptcies, broken families, and needless deaths due to lack of treatment. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my Grandchildren to live a shorter life because they were born here rather than up North. I don’t want them to have a greater risk of dying in childbirth, or of suffering the tragedy of losing a child, or of going into bankruptcy, or of going through a divorce, or of dying because they lack insurance, than they would have if they were born in Canada or another wealthy country.
You need to do something about this if you want to keep my vote.
You need to end the needless deaths, bankruptcies, and divorces caused by our health insurance system. You need to end the greater infant mortality, birth defects and dangers to the health of American mothers going through pregnancy and birth. You need to support a much-improved version of HR 3200, since that bill is still inadequate. In particular, the problems we face in health care can’t wait until 2013 to fix. We all know that without benefit of computers, Lyndon Johnson introduced Medicare in less than a year. Either this can be done with HR 3200, or the bill must be changed so that it can be done. Too many are dying and going into bankruptcy for you and we to wait four years for this bill to become operational. It’s simply unconscionable that Congress would prioritize the interests of the insurance companies over the interests of constituents of theirs who will die, or go into bankruptcy because Congress postpones full implementation of this bill until 2013. Make no mistake, many, many more Americans will die because of this delay, than died as a result of both 9/11 AND the War In Iraq. And this time the blame won’t be Osama Bin Laden’s, or another terrorist’s, It will belong to Senators and Congresspersons who vote for that unconscionable delay. If you vote for it, it will belong to you.
The Bill is also inadequate because the public option is too small and too weak. We know that the market doesn’t work in health insurance. There are simple reasons for this just outlined by Paul Krugman in one of his blogs. But apart from those reasons, the Health Insurance market is too concentrated and monopolistic to act like a real market. For a public plan to provide real competition to the big private companies, it has to be very large, as Jacob Hacker indicated in his original proposals for the public option idea. CBO has forecast that HR 3200 will only cover 10 million people after it is finally implemented and will do little to “bend the cost curve.” This won’t provide a competitive market force sufficient to prevent rising prices. The public option will need at least 45 million members, as well as a network of practitioners drawn from Medicare, to begin with, to have an impact on the big private companies and their pricing, and too keep costs down. So, HR 3200 needs to be strengthened.
Finally, even if HR 3200 involved immediate implementation and had a large public option, it would still not be what we really ought to pass. HR 3200 is much more expensive than it needs to be, and the reason is that we’re trying not to hurt the health insurers too much, even if ordinary Americans die or go bankrupt as a result of this misplaced concern. The most cost-effective bill we could pass is the Anthony Weiner amendment to HR 3200 replacing that bill with HR 676, John Conyers single payer bill. Single payer is best because it will be universal, no ifs, ands, or buts, and will also be less expensive than the alternatives.
It is also simpler for people to understand because they know and like Medicare. They know that Medicare is not just another BS piece of legislation, that provides window dressing, and lots of benefits to a vested interest, but doesn’t help regular people. A revised HR 232 can be sold as a Medicare for all bill. We know it will work better than what we have now to improve care, and end the needless deaths, and bankruptcies. That is, we know that similar systems to universal Medicare have been more successful than our private health insurance system in other countries. We also know that Medicare and military Tricare have worked well here in America, and we hear no complaints about “socialized medicine” against those programs.
So, in short, I, along with 59% of the American people, according to a poll taken in January of 2009, prefer a single payer solution to our problems. I think an alternative incorporating a VERY STRONG public option may also work, and it wouldn’t be a deal-breaker for me if you voted for that. However, if you voted to pass a reform bill that did not contain a VERY STRONG public option, then I will vote against you in the next primary election for your seat and I will contribute to any opponent of yours who says they will support single payer once in office.
I’m sorry to be so blunt, But I’m afraid that a universal health insurance system which will provide good care for all Americans and will stop deaths and bankruptcies and make our businesses more competitive, is where I live right now. It’s personal. If you vote against it, then you vote against me. And if you vote against me, I will vote against you, and I will work to defeat you in the next election.
Best Regards,
Joseph M. Firestone
Your Long Time and Faithful Constituent