To My Senators: Strong Health Care Reform is Essential; Bad Health Care Reform Legislation Will End Democratic Dominance in 2010
Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 5:15PM [Below you will find the text of a letter I am sending to my Senators. I urge all my readers to use the link: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm and write your senator, encouraging them to support the public option and the end of the anti-trust exemption for the insurance industry as essential parts of any healthcare reform bill. Now is the time to increase agitation for robust reform.]
Dear Senator X:
The Democratically led congress only has one chance at health care reform and staying in power. The Democrats must pass good, tough health care reform that contains a public option and ends the anti-trust exemption for the insurance industry. The kind of weak health care reform contained in the Baucus bill as it was passed by the finance committee will hurt the public and will spell defeat for the Democrats in 2010.
I have studied the polling data on health care reform carefully, and while there is wide variance in the amount of support shown for health care reform overall, all the polls indicate that the public is deeply worried that the final legislation will lead to increased insurance premiums as the Baucus bill will. To counter this, you need to pass robust health care reform legislation that leads to immediate improvements you can point to.
You may think this is “The Perfect” being the enemy of “The Good.” It is not. But for the Democrats to maintain control of the House and Senate, which I think is better for the county, the final health care reform legislation needs to be at least very good; it cannot be kind of OK. That will lead to defeat. If the final bill is just kind of OK, you will have to vote against it.
Three elements are essential to ensure that the final bill is good enough to pass: 1, a strong public option (Medicare under 65); 2, near universal coverage (for which you need the public option); 3, an end to the insurance industry’s anti-trust exemption (to further ensure the competition that the insurance industry so dreads. A line must be drawn in the sand for these three items.
Sincerely Giles A. de Mello