On Friday I mailed this letter to 32 Blue Dogs and some of the worst Republican't Senators. On Saturday I emailed all of them too with the same letter (because snail mail to Congress gets delayed by Homeland Security for extra screening--something to do with protecting their health...).
Now here's a way to hack the system: Politicians only read mail from their own constituents so I did not use my own mailing address. Instead I got on Yelp and looked up the address of a local coffee shop in a city in each state I was targeting and used that address (as well as a legitimate email address in case any of them actually want to respond--which I doubt will happen).
Then I donated $30 bucks to Pete DeFazio (and $5 to ActBlue too) for promising to reject any bill that does not contain a Public Option.
Here is the link for reaching every Senator quick and easy.
The House Clerk makes available a downloadable file that is already set up to print mailing labels to every Congresscritter.
Dear Senator,
I am an entrepreneur. I am the capital in capitalism. I have created 2 businesses and employ 25 people between them. I have been moderately successful over the past seven years in business, yet I was not able to afford health insurance until recently (and the arcane insurance laws of this state actually prevent me from entering into a group plan). When my family finally bought private insurance we had to give up certain minor luxuries (restaurants, movies, vacations, saving for retirement, etc.), to be able to afford the $640 a month premium (this is no gold-plated plan either, it carries a $1,500 deductible per person).
We were accepted into a program in May of this year, but my son was rejected from this private insurance plan because of a minor endocrine deficiency he was born with. His problem is treated in its entirety with $30 a month worth of drugs, yet the private carrier was allowed to reject him outright for coverage. This in and of itself seems criminal, yet it is legal for them to do so. My son had to go into a state-run insurance pool that costs us $250 a month (and we are lucky that he got in because openings in the program are rare). In August, after just three months of our being covered by the private plan, our premium was raised by 37% to $879 per month. And it was not that we had overused this insurance—between 3 people we had a total of one doctor visit during that time, for a case of pink eye.
My insurance premiums for 4 people now total $1,129 per month. I made less than $40,000 last year and I have to spend $13,550 per year, over 35% of my gross income, on health insurance. That’s 35 cents on the first dollar I make, 35 cents on each dollar thereafter and don’t leave out the 35 cents on the very last dollar I make too. If this were a tax—and to me it is a tax on my family’s well-being—if this were a federal tax, Senator, you would be screaming bloody murder on the floor of the Senate on my behalf. But since I pay this obscene exorbitance as profits into the pockets of corporations who help you get re-elected, you are okay with it. There is something really wrong here, especially when you consider that you, Senator, with the help of my taxes, pay only about 2.5% of your income for your family insurance coverage.
Of the people who defaulted on their mortgages because of medical expenses, 70% of them had health insurance. The problems of this recession and the cost of health care are inextricably linked and if you can’t see that then you don’t deserve the privilege of holding public office; and if you won’t act on that then you don’t deserve to think yourself a patriotic American or even a good follower of your faith. This is a crisis that affects our entire nation; if a US Senator won't help in our time of need, then who do you think should come to our aid? How can you love America while you show disdain for fifty million Americans? To be in a position to help people in need and yet to actually prevent others from helping them is a moral outrage; it’s like a doctor slashing the tires on an ambulance on it's way to a crash site.
These insurance companies operate freely as regional monopolies who ought to be prosecuted under anti-trust laws as was AT&T. Failing that, there are really only two choices here that will help us: either bring the insurance companies to heel by stripping profit from health care and health insurance or let us Americans buy into Medicare. Medicare works, the structure is already in place, all you need to do is lower the eligible age to birth. You won’t have to build a new bureaucracy to regulate the insurance companies because they will fall right into line and start behaving responsibly as they will now have a viable competitor in all markets. You don’t need a 1,200 page bill to do either one of those.
Should you raise my taxes to pay for it? Hell yes! I am not seeking a free ride, I expect to pay my fair share, but I also expect that fair share to be a good deal less than 35% of my gross income. All we Americans are asking for is to have access to medical insurance that will not bankrupt us with its cost, deny us coverage for preexisting conditions or drop us from its rolls as soon as we get sick. If you raised my taxes by 5 grand a year to pay for health insurance I would be saving over 8 grand a year! Don't any of you people in Warshington know any math? Raise the dividend tax to 20% and allocate the extra 5% to pay for health insurance. Stop taxing Wall Street Masters of the Universe at the 15% dividend rate and tax their earnings as income like everyone else. Double the taxes on the corporate health providers, pharmaceutical, and health insurance industries; they should have to underwrite our nation’s health insurance if they want to profit off people’s miseries.
Don’t lie to us by pretending that universal health care is some insidious new form of socialism because you know damn well that all forms of insurance are socialism in that they spread the risk for a few among the many. In that respect the police department, the fire department, and our vast military are also socialism and we rely on them every single day to keep us safe from harm. Would you dare suggest we go without our military, or fire and police departments? Life in our country without their protections would be as randomly hazardous as it is in Afghanistan or Iraq; yet without a public option Congress is complicit in the random killing of Americans just the same. Americans are killed every day by callous, profit-driven insurance companies while Congress pockets fat campaign donations and reacts with indifference.
Stop hurting the people you are supposed to be representing. Ignore the pundits, ignore the idiots on television, ignore the politics of ignorance and demagoguery, ignore the insurance industry and ignore the lobbyists—you have 50 million Americans who need your help right now. We can prosper together as a nation or we can continue to allow the unluckiest Americans among us to die younger than they have to, broke and homeless, but comforted by the knowledge that some corporation made more money for it; if you are not helping us achieve the former then you are dooming us to the latter. Do the right thing, Senator, and support the public option. In doing so you will help me, my family, my employees, my customers, my friends, my neighbors, my fellow citizens; all of them your constituents. Help us, Senator, help Americans and help America.
Sincerely,
{taodog}
Anytown, USA