Healthcare Reform: An open letter to President Obama

To President Barack Obama

http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

 Dear sir:

 Do not compromise on health care reform. Any bill must contain a strong government-run health insurance option. Anything less will be a victory for the forces of fear and unreason and for the health insurance industry. To accept a bill without a strong government-run option is not a bipartisan compromise. It is appeasement.

As someone who reads multiple, credible news sources daily (e.g. New York Times, Washington Post, AP, Reuters, and ABC online), I see no evidence of genuine Republican interest in compromise. Senator Sen. Olympia Snowe maybe the exception, but her "trigger" compromise is unacceptable.

Compromise on credit card reform resulted in a weak bill that has given the credit card companies time to arbitrarily raise the interest rates for millions like me who have long histories of paying all their bills on time. A weak compromise on healthcare reform will similarly allow the health insurance industry to reap windfall profits.

I know you feel that ushering in an era of bipartisan compromise is a major part of the change you were elected to bring to Washington. However, good compromise can only be made between competing visions of what is best for the country. The Republicans are basing their opposition only on a vision of what is best for the Republican Party.

After pretending for months to negotiate in good faith, Senator Grassley stood before town hall meetings and stoked the fear that healthcare reform would allow the government to "pull the plug on grandma." And if that is not enough to show his lack of rectitude, he sent out an August fundraising letter in which he admitted, "The simple truth is that I am and always have been opposed to the Obama Administration's plans to nationalize health care, period." This is the face of Republican treachery—the face of a Republican Party that does not care about the truth or what is best for the American people. The only way to compromise with such politicians is to appease them by selling out the public good. 

I know that the loss of Senator Kennedy makes passage of strong healthcare reform legislation in the senate much more difficult (particularly if Massachusetts does not change its law to allow for an interim appointment.) Then let the legislation fail. The public option is something that polls say the majority of Americans want, and we will make the failure to pass healthcare reform this year a rallying cry for electing more Democratic Senators in 2010.  

Like you, I have watched with horror and amazement as town hall meetings were taken over by citizens afraid of boogiemen invented by the health insurance industry and the right-wing fringe. Like those who cling to the belief you were born in Kenya, most of these citizens are willfully ignorant. Many were mostly demonstrating their continued anger at your election. These people only represent a small section of the American population. You cannot let their protests affect your decision on healthcare.

Stand with the progressives in the senate and the house, and if you fail, it will be to your credit. It will be better for the American people and economy to fight this battle again next year or the year after than to accept an appeasement compromise which will only dishearten your supporters.

Please Mr. President, do not compromise away a strong government-run health insurance option.

Respectfully,

 Giles A. de Mello

[Readers, please use the link http://www.whitehouse.gov/CONTACT/ to e-mail President Obama. You don't need to be as long winded as I was. Simply tell him that if takes a stand supporting a strong government-run health insurance option then he can count on your continuing support on this issue. There is still time to make a difference.]

Comments

[Amy X-Ray]

Finally, here is someone willing to put their foot down in the name of properly run healthcare! I don't know if these Republican senators are blind, or ignorant, or ignorantly blind, but without a secure government run health care system, the empacet on society is going to be enormous. If people continue to have to choose between grocieries for their families to eat and medications they need to keep their health, they are going to lose faith in their doctors, lose faith in health care in general, and stop going to the doctor or the hospital when they need to because they know without money they won't be helped. Don't be a wimp Obama, if you don't stand up for this important issue, you are no better than any other limp-spined politician out there.

[nancy nurse]

Current insurance companies are doing just fine killing off those who use their insurance without the government's help. There continues to be too much government run programs without including healthcare. Medicaid and medicare caps are choking physicians to the limit that a patient is lucky to get 10 mintes of time after waiting hours in the waiting room. A public run option will not provide anymore resources for getting quality care. It will just lead to more substandard care.