Health Care Reform: My line in the sand

Health Care Reform: My line in the sand
by Kitsap River

Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 11:40:14 PM PDT

I don't know if you read Daily Kos any more, Mr. President, but I sure hope so, or I hope someone will get this to you somehow. I hope someone will ensure that you read this before you attend any more meetings to get insurance and pharmaceutical industry darlings to tell you about the importance of "bipartisanship" in achieving your health care agenda.

We need a public option, Mr. President, a real one. We need a strong, robust, Medicare-like public option that is ready on Day 1, available to everyone on Day 1, affordable, uses every resource possible to the government to keep prices down and keep insurers honest, and we need you not to compromise on it, Mr. President.

Tell them "No deal" when they try to woo you with talk of Republican buy-in. The only buy-in you're really going to get from them is that they'll all buy in to obstructing this bill when it gets to the Senate floor. Look how they behaved with respect to your stimulus package! The more you give in to them, the more they're going to think they can get away with, and the more they'll insist on watering it down. Stand firm, Mr. President, stand firm. Draw a line in the sand.

* Kitsap River's diary :: ::
*

I'm going to level with you, Mr. President. I know you appreciate someone being honest with you about what he or she sees as our country's needs. So I'll level with you here. I represent a small segment of the population. We come from all walks of life, as they say, and represent all philosophies and ideologies, but we have one thing in common: our kidneys don't work.

We're a good group of people, Mr. President, but I'll tell you one thing for sure: every single one of us would say that there don't need to be any more of us.

Let me tell you about the email I got this morning, Mr. President. It's from a young woman; she's 28, in love, and a type 1 diabetic. She hasn't had health insurance in over 4 years. She has 35% kidney function remaining because of it, and is developing some other serious diabetic complications along with it. She's got some peripheral neuropathy and the beginnings of diabetic retinopathy. One puts her at risk for losing her feet, the other puts her at risk of losing her sight. Sooner or later, she's going to lose her kidneys, and then she's going to wind up on dialysis, like me. And you and I are going to pay for it, via Medicare.

Did I mention that I have Medicare, though I'm only 49? It's because of the dialysis. That treatment is expensive, Mr. President. You ought to see what some of these dialysis clinics charge private insurance for dialysis. The for-profit ones have been known to charge $35,000 a month or more for one person's treatments. That's why they want us to keep our private insurance, even at the expense of our health and finances; they want that money. The kind of money they can't get from Medicare.

That young woman doesn't need an insurance company; she needs a doctor, NOW. She's been in the hospital recently in a diabetic coma. We don't need to abandon people like this. She could be out in the workforce, vibrant, young, living life to the utmost extent of her capabilities; instead, she's spending every day in terrible pain, vomiting all the time, feeling just awful, and I know how she feels, because I've been through it myself. If we as a society hadn't abandoned her to her own devices although she needs ongoing expert medical attention, we wouldn't be facing the prospect of paying for her dialysis sooner or later.

Mr. President, you need to draw a line in the sand. I already have, and here's mine, deep as a moat and just as full of alligators:
If there is no public option, there must be no mandatory insurance purchase. You can't force me to give that much of my partner's hard-earned money, plus over $500/month in prescription co-pays, plus co-insurance, plus Medicare premiums, plus deductibles for both of us, plus the out-of-network separate deductible to let me see my own GP (who is no longer with a practice that is a "preferred provider" with our insurance), to a for-profit insurance company so that its executives can continue to dump cancer patients, throw people off the rolls for having had acne or depression, and shovel the money to their CEOs to fuel their greedy, profligate lifestyles. You can't force me to give that much of our money to a company that's going to look hard for as many ways as possible not to give us fair value for it. That not only doesn't make business sense for us, it doesn't make common sense!

No public option = no mandatory insurance. That's my line in the sand. You promised us that we'd be able to get the same health care that members of Congress get. You promised me I'd be able to get the same coverage that you get, or Max Baucus gets, or Chuck Grassley gets. Why should they have it, at my expense, and forbid me to have it, too? What's right and just about that?

You want my support for your health care agenda, Mr. President? OK, I'll be happy to give it to you, as long as you also support mine. That's why I worked for you; now it's your turn to work for me. It's why I made 270 or so calls from my cell phone and ran up my bill tremendously on election day alone, and many times that number prior to election day. It's why I donated to you money that I really couldn't afford, because I believed you were the best person for the job. Still do. I supported you and continue to support you; now you support me.

Stand firm. Stand firm. The insurance industry, big pharma, and the other players who are hoping you'll force us all to give them as much money as they want are all going to turn on you if you stand firm, and you know it, but the American people - us, the little guys - we'll all be right behind you. We've got your back.

When they come for the public option, Mr. President, tell them No.

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Kossacks, time to draw your line in the sand. No public option = no mandatory insurance. Call your Senators. Tell them they MUST vote for a public option.

Here, reprinted from slinkerwink's excellent diary, the list of critical must-call Senators (especially if one of these is one of yours - my Senator Maria Cantwell's on here):

CALL Senator Schumer at (202) 224-6542

ALSO, PLEASE CALL the phone numbers of ALL the Senators on the Finance Committee with these talking points below for the mark-up:

Tell Senator [Name] that you DO NOT want the 7-year trigger for the public option and take it off the table, and that you want him to support an affordable strong, robust Medicare-like public option. We NEED a strong, robust Medicare-like public option NOW OPEN TO ALL AMERICANS AND AFFORDABLE, not more of the SAME broken system that's given us unaffordable premiums, little private insurance coverage, and rising co-pays. Also, DON'T TAX OUR EMPLOYER HEALTH BENEFITS. Instead, follow the proposal by President Obama to tax the wealthy above $250,000, eliminate the overpayments in Medicare Advantage, and put tax capital gains to help fund health care reform. TELL YOUR SENATOR NO ON THE CONRAD CO-OP COMPROMISE.

Please CALL Senator Max Baucus at (202) 224-2651

Please CALL Senator Olympia Snowe at (202) 224-5344

Please CALL Senator John Rockefeller at (202) 224-6472

Please CALL Senator Ron Wyden at (202) 224-5244

Please CALL Senator Kent Conrad at (202) 224-2043

Please CALL Senator Jeff Bingaman at (202) 224-5521

Please CALL Senator John Kerry at (202) 224-2742

Please CALL Senator Blanche Lincoln at 202-224-4843

Please CALL Senator Debbie Stabenow at (202) 224-4822

Please CALL Senator Maria Cantwell at 202-224-3441

Please CALL Senator Bill Nelson at 202-224-5274

Please CALL Senator Robert Menendez at 202-224-4744

Please CALL Senator Thomas Carper at (202) 224-2441

There's more you can do, too. Send them all faxes! Send them each a fax, every day, and tell everyone you know who supports a public option to do it, too.

Please FAX Senator Charles Schumer at (202) 228-3027

Please FAX Senator Max Baucus at (202) 224-9412

Please FAX Senator Olympia Snowe at (202) 224-1946

Please FAX Senator John Rockefeller at (202) 224-7665

Please FAX Senator Ron Wyden at (202) 228-2717

Please FAX Senator Kent Conrad at (202) 224-7776

Please FAX Senator Jeff Bingaman at (202) 224-2852

Please FAX Senator John Kerry at (202) 224-8525

Please FAX Senator Blanche Lincoln at (202) 228-1371

Please FAX Senator Debbie Stabenow at (202) 228-0325

Please FAX Senator Maria Cantwell at (202) 228-0514

Please FAX Senator Bill Nelson at (202) 228-2183

Please FAX Senator Robert Menendez at (202) 228-2197

Please FAX Senator Thomas Carper at (202) 228-2190

And last, but most certainly not least:
Please FAX President Barack Obama at (202) 456-2461

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/7/750751/-Health-Care-Reform:-My-line-in-the-sand