There's no excuse for any congressional Dem to vote against the HCR bill. No excuse. You're either Blue or you're not. And those who'll vote against it, should be punished.
Natoma Canfield, the 50 years old woman from Medina, Ohio, whose letter President Obama read to insurance executives last week, is back in the hospital after more than a decade being cancer-free.
"I went from feeling A-OK to really bad," she told ABC from the hospital.
Natoma is a cleaning woman who could no longer afford to pay for her skyrocketing insurance premiums. She told ABC that no matter the results of her current tests, she knows she will be facing "a huge hospital bill", since she had to drop her individual health insurance from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Ohio after its most recent premium increase.
President Obama will be visiting Cleveland, Ohio, on Monday and the White House had invited Canfield to introduce him. Canfield's sister will be traveling from Florida to fill in for her, in case she can't attend.
In her letter to the president, Natoma wrote:
Dear President Obama
I am 50 years old. I was diagnosed with carcinoma in-situ 16 years ago and following my divorce 12 years ago I became self-employed. After my Cobra ran out I was able to find costly, but affordable health insurance. As a responsible individual, I have struggled to maintain my individual coverage and have increased my deductible and out of pocket-limits in an attempt to control my cost and keep my health insurance.
Last year (2009) my insurance premium was increased over 25% even though I increased my deductible and out of pocket to the highest limits available. I paid out over $6075.24 in premiums, $2415.26 for medical care, $225 in co-pays and $1500 for prescriptions. I never reached my deductible of $2500 so the insurance company only paid out a total $935.32 to my providers.
I must repeat, in 2009 my insurance company received $6075.24 in premiums and paid out only $935.32! Incredibly I have just been notified that my premium for next year 2010 has been increased over 40% to $8496.24($708.02 per month)!!!! This is the same insurance company I have been with for over 11 cancer free years!!!
I need your Health reform bill to help me!!! I simply can no longer afford to pay for my health care costs!! Thanks to this incredible premium increase demanded by my insurance company, January will be my last month of insurance.
I live in the house my mother & father built in 1958 and I am so afraid of the possibility I might loose this family heirloom as a result of my being forced to drop my health care insurance. The health insurance industry technically has not denied me insurance directly, but indirectly they have by increasing my costs. They perceive me as becoming a higher risk factor to them despite being a loyal customer. I will never be able to obtain new health insurance due to the lack of real competition.
We are talking about Anthem who apparently has no respect for your attempts to reform the health insurance industry.
Please stay focused in your reform attempts as I and many others are in desperate need of your help.
Sincerely
Natoma Canfield
You can see the original copy of Natoma's letter to the president here.
In my opinion, if you're a member of the Democratic Party, there's absolutely NO EXCUSE that can justify a vote against this HCR bill. No justification.
No theoretical principle (Or god forbid, political calculation) is more important than the practical massive improvement in the lives of so many people. Nothing can be more important than stopping insurance companies dictatorship, and expanding coverage to 31 million people. We can improve it later, we can make it better and better, but we have to start somewhere and we have to HELP people. Because that's what Democrats do. We HELP people. That's the difference between US and THEM. We care about others, *they* only care about themselves. That's why we're better than them. If not us, who's going to help Natoma Canfield?
So i don't care if your name is Dennis Kucinich or Bart Stupak - If you vote against the most important social legislation in 45 years, if you're going to vote against taking a huge step towards materializing the Democratic Party signature ideal - you should be kicked out of this party, because you don't deserve to be part of it.
PASS THE DAME BILL!