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The news from Reid that health insurance reform is likely not happening this year is the last straw for me. Here's my letter to the leadership and my senators. I admit to whining, but I've had it.
President Obama, Senator Reid, Senator Menendez, Senator Lautenberg, Speaker Pelosi:
I have sent dozens of emails, letters, and faxes. I have contributed money. I have made phone calls. I have hoped for real health insurance reform. But it is now distressingly clear that the needs of the people are secondary to the power and money of the lobbyists.
Speaker Pelosi promised a strong public option. It is now clear that there will be, at best, a public option that is not open to 95% of the public. In other words, the public option is a bad joke. It is likely that we wind up with no option at all.
The House has produced a bill that is numbing in its complexity. It is a gift to the insurance lobby. The ban on pre-existing conditions doesn't go into effect until 2013. This is completely unjustified. I could see a six-month period of adjustment for insurance companies. Yet they are given three more years of cherry-picking.
This is very personal to me as my son is one of the millions of Americans denied insurance due to medical history. Instead of providing him access to the same choices that most Americans have, he will have to wait. His insurance runs out soon. Yet the games in Washington continue. At best he'll get some kind of pool coverage with relatively high premiums. At worst, he has nothing.
It is now November. We are now hearing from Senator Reid that there may not be any legislation this year. Just what is the point of having Democrats control both houses of Congress if you cannot get anything done?
Each day that goes by makes the Republicans stronger and the Democrats weaker. We are treated to the spectacle of Joe Lieberman and Olympia Snowe controlling the process and the message. Why is Lieberman even part of the caucus? It is clear that he represents the insurance industry over the citizens of his state.
I for one am completely disgusted with the Democrat leadership in both the House and Senate. In addition, President Obama has not provided any clear leadership to move this process along. Lately, he has been MIA on this subject.
Lyndon Johnson enacted Medicare and had the system up and running in something like one year. Yet the House time line delays much of the implementation until 2013, time enough for what little that does get enacted to be overturned depending on future election cycles. Total implementation is not until something like 2018. This is beyond reason. Are we not more capable than this?
Anger and disgust is too mild to describe how I feel. I suspect it will only get worse as the Senate/House committee work out various compromises.
I worked hard for President Obama's election. I donated thousands of dollars. I've done what I could to support insurance reform and continued to donate to the cause. But now I am done. The uninsured and under-insured are getting screwed. The lobbyists are getting rewarded. Unfortunately, health insurance reform is only one of the major problems facing us. That is more reason why this should've been done and signed into law so we could move on to even bigger challenges.
I doubt if this letter gets read. I doubt at this point that anybody in Congress really cares.
I voted for Jon Corzine yesterday. He just might be the last Democrat I vote for for a long time. At least Republicans had the guts to enact their agenda, bad as it was. Incredibly, Democrats dither while those in need continue to wait for help.
I feel the fool for having believed that things would be different with significant majorities in both the House and the Senate, that there would be real change. I guess you will eventually pass some kind of weak reform, pat each other on the back and say what a great job you did delivering for the American people. Don't think we are so stupid as to believe it.
You have lost me in the process. Too little, too late. At this point I wouldn't be shocked to see Democrats just walk away from it all. You ought to be ashamed, but I don't think politicians have the capacity to feel shame. And to think I gave my money to help elect Democratic Senators and Representatives. What was the point?
Yesterday's elections should be a wake-up call that we are hurting. We need solutions and action on the big problems facing us. We have seen little but tepid, timid leadership. I hope it turns around in the upcoming months but I am done expecting that anything much changes.
In closing, I reiterate my disgust and disappointment.
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