30 March 2009

Healthcare Fairness



We the people of the United States of America deserve to be secure in our health and well being. As such, we have the RIGHT to low cost, high efficiency health care. Much like that which our Legislators and other elected officials enjoy.

Many of our elected officials seem to feel that we, the people, do not deserve the RIGHT to our health. As such, I respectfully request that they forfeit theirs.

Any elected official that feels that health care is not a RIGHT of all Americans, feels that our "for profit" health care system is fair, should be willing to live by the same standards as their constituents. They must forfeit their government supplied health care policies.


CALL TO ACTION:

I would like my readers that agree with this idea to meet with/write to their elected officials. Letters to the editor/blog posts, etc.. are also encouraged.
If you do not know who your Senators or Representative is please click here.

It is important to make the letter personal. Make sure to include the fact that you feel they should forfeit their policy if they do not support universal healthcare. Explain your circumstances, why this issue is important to you. Many legislators will tell you that form letters get discarded fairly quickly into the "form letter" pile.

It is important that we convey the absolute necessity of this. We must bring equality into the health care process.


I would like to keep a record of those letters sent out, if you use e-mail, please consider a BCC to healthcarefairness@gmail.com Also, please forward any responses you receive to the same address.

STATISTICS/DETAILS:
  • Over 46 million U.S. citizens are uninsured. That number is growing every day with layoffs.
  • The average family policy cost exceeded $12,000 this year and continues to increase. Who has $1,000/mo plus the cost of medicine?
  • Low wage workers do not CHOOSE to be uninsured, it is not economically feasible.
  • The United States spends more on health care than other industrialized nations, and those countries provide health insurance to all their citizens.
  • Single payer healthcare would increase the competitiveness of U.S. companies on the global market.
EDIT********** Here's a sample of the letter I wrote to my Senators and Representative.

Senator Brownback,

I am writing to you to express my support for single payer health care. As our economy struggles, more and more of your constituents are joining the ranks of the uninsured.

As you can imagine, being without health insurance is a very scary thing. You wake up every day hoping that today isn't the day that something bad happens. You try every home remedy known to man - all because our healthcare system is broken. Personally, I have been forgoing medication for my chronic asthma for over six months, since losing my job.

It is very frustrating to hear members of your party talk about how health care is not a "right". We spend more money on healthcare than any other nation, yet people die because they can't afford access. There is something very wrong with that.

I have a proposal for you. If you truly believe that government provided healthcare is not the best way to answer our growing healthcare issue (not to mention global competitiveness), I ask that you publicly forfeit your taxpayer funded healthcare plan. Senators and Representatives have access to the best healthcare in the world - their constituents should too. If we can't have it, you shouldn't either.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,
Nicki
Wichita, KS
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7 comments:

  1. Outstanding Nicki.

    I'll be sending a similar letter to both of my Senators and my Representative tomorrow.

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  2. I moved to the United States from Canada 6 years ago, and I still can't get my mind around the fact that you people actually put up with this shit VOLUNTARILY. I mean, this is supposedly a democracy. The American health care system was not imposed by tyrants.

    In Canada I received excellent care in a timely manner at no cost to me, beyond my $54 a month MSP premium. There were no co-pays, deductables, or denials of treatment due to "pre-existing conditions," in fact these terms are unknown outside of the United States.

    Here, everytime I have any kind of medical procedure, I get a bill. Sometimes my insurance company pays. Sometimes they refuse to. Sometimes they pay a portion of it. There is no rhyme nor reason to this that I can see, but the result is that I, an employed professional in the richest country on earth, often forego treatment for financial reasons. I have determined that, if I am ever diagnosed with an expensive, potentially fatal illness, I will commit suicide. This, it seems to me, is a far more desirable alternative than spending my last days arguing with insurance companies, and leaving my widow with crippling debt.

    The United States is alone among industrialized nations in using the private insurance model for health care delivery. We spend more than anyone else (about twice as much as Canada) and yet rank 37th among industrialized nations in key areas like mortality, morbidity, and infant deaths. If paying more and getting crappier results isn't the very definition of 'stupid,' I don't know what is.

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  3. Sending emails momentarily.

    I am under no illusion that single-payer will happen at the federal level. Therefore I support the California bill SB-810 for single payer in CA. That's an uphill battle, too.

    It's near impossible to convince many that it is not "socialized medicine" no matter how often it's pointed out that the government would not employ a single care provider or facility under single-payer. Then they resort to an argument about "rationing" when the logic of a huge risk pool of healthy and unhealthy people to keep costs low is presented to them.

    The only answer is to keep up the drum beat of the facts about S.P. and pressure on our elected officials to never take it off the table.

    Thanks for this post.

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  4. Brownback? Man, I think even a visitation from an angel wouldn't convince him. Reason won't. But numbers might! Go get 'im, Nicki!

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  5. Yeah tell me about it Bat - I'm kind of in the 5th ring of hell - Brownback, Roberts and Tiahrt...sick, sad and wrong!

    I got a canned response from Roberts - so he didn't even read my letter.

    Thanks to everyone for their comments! John, I like to think that we are suffering from some sort of mass mental illness that makes us willing to put up with this mess!

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  6. I have been looking for a succinct and immediate summary for this legislative hypocrisy and Voila! Nicki, you have come upon the ultimate arguement "if it is good enough for you (lawmaker) it's good enough for me! thank you Nicki, just brilliant. By the way I sent your link to Don McCanne, a real crusader in this fight. Check it out and if you want to stay informed sign up for his quote of the day."Don McCanne" don@mccanne.org Jim M

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  7. Thanks for the support Jim M! I checked out Don McCanne's website - it was very refreshing to see a physician understand the reality of our healthcare situation, thank you for the info!

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