Dear President Obama
Tonight the press is reporting that you and Mr Emanuel are "caving" on the public option for healthcare. Earlier today the press reported how lobbying firms are spending an unprecendented amount of money to defeat the public option......
And what can I do? I can write to you at the White House (see note below). I can call Baucus' office (they hung up when I said I was from California). I can call my Senators (Sen. Feinstein's staffer was offended when I asked her whether she, the staffer, had health insurance).
From where I sit, it looks like a few well-heeled Senators are making decisions about my life and my future. I don't have access to them.
You do.
Who will fight for me?
Dear President Obama
Tonight the press is reporting that you and Mr Emanuel are "caving" on the public option for healthcare. Earlier today the press reported how lobbying firms are spending an unprecendented amount of money to defeat the public option.
I am a self-employed consultant who has paid for her own healthcare since 1995 with Blue Cross/Wellpoint. Since my premiums quadrupled since that time, I recently joined Kaiser - but not without a fight and appeal.
There are four problems with the current no-public option system: access, coverage, lack of competition (the "market forces" myth), and the negative effects of cost containment:
1 Access. The insurance companies don't want our business if we're out of work, have been sick, or are sick. Why are they fighting for customers they don't want?
When I first applied to Kaiser, they turned me down and suggested that I seek coverage through the state of California - a public health option that costs the same as Blue Cross (~ $ 950/month).
2 Coverage. The insurance companies keep reducing coverage. In the past five years near Stanford University, my mental health visits were no longer covered, my mammographer no longer took Blue Cross, I lost access to my primary care doctor when his practice opted for concierge, and my dentist and ophthalmologist both stopped taking insurance.
3 Lack of competition: the "market forces" myth. In the current debate, the expression "market forces" is no longer being used. Every day my body ages. I cannot change my DNA. Statistically, the passage of time pushes me inevitably towards higher medical costs. But I cannot swap them for a lower cost option. "Market forces" are a myth.
As an individual I have no economic power to reduce my healthcare premiums.
The only market force in a public healthcare option is group purchasing power, not competitive forces forged by individual choice.
4 The negative effects of cost containment. Blue Cross lowered my premiums to the point that no one wanted their coverage. Lowering reimbursements to healthcare providers was called "cost containment."
I cared for my father for the last 9.5 years of his life, a WWII veteran (skipper of the LCT 549 on Omaha Beach). Medicare lowered premiums to the point that only one medical practice in Monterey would see Medicare patients in nursing homes. Medicare lowering reimbursements to healthcare providers was called "cost containment."
I have seen too many elderly people rotting in beds with no medical care and no advocates.
Why are health insurance companies fighting the public health option when they are deliberately pushing many of us out, or deliberately turning many of us away as patients?
How can Tri-Care provide healthcare to 9.2 million servicemen and women at the U.S. taxpayers' expense, but the private health insurers do not protest about "competition"?
Why do a few Senators allow lobbyists making $250,000 a year into their office, but I, an American, cannot call the elected official in Montana who effectively controls the discussion and the agenda?
If a public healthcare option is good enough for Congress, why would they deny it to 42 million Americans?
I believe that I have a fundamental right to access, coverage and affordable healthcare.
It is incredibly frustrating listening to politicians sell out to lobbying interests that could care less whether I live or die or vote.
I ask that you fight for the public healthcare option with all the vision, moral strength and political capital you've got.
There are 42 million of us who are depending on you, who elected you to serve us - not the healthcare insurance industry.