Dear Mr. or Ms. Senator/Representative:
Please vote NO for so-called Health Reform.
My fear is that the issue is more ‘health cost’ than health care and that your solution is to create a new, government behemoth, which will undoubtedly have scores of significant and negative ‘unintended’ consequences.
Also, arguments that health care is a right miss the point. Who claims such is a right? Is driving one’s car to work to make a living to support your family and pay taxes to support your government services a right? No, it is not. It is a privilege. Therefore, I implore you to resist emotional, misguided and false arguments for such a dramatic change to our health system without first understanding what new problems will surface that we will be unable to solve.
Consider our failures to date. Our health system costs are shameful. Annual increases in health insurance premiums are double-digit, while overall economic inflation hovers in the low single-digit range. Why is that? We should examine such things, and solve them. If we are unable or unwilling to act on such cost disparities today, why would we think that creating a new law and new paradigm, with which we are unfamiliar, will seemingly be implemented smoothly and solve all ills? I am befuddled by that logic. Yet, many believe the magic of legislation, with pretty titles, will solve real human issues.
Look at the infamous (in my eyes) Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) law, which Congress passed in the 1980’s because a few high-income retired feds abused the Social Security System by receiving monthly checks for which they were not entitled. Rather than studying that issue and taking appropriate surgical actions, Congress passed a law, with a title that sounds All-American and Apple-Pie-ish, and condemned all retired federal employees (and those in other public pension systems) by reducing by 40% any Social Security benefits they ‘rightfully’ earned by paying FICA taxes and working the requisite number of ‘quarters’ or periods, as they are now called. Now, those who retired with relatively low salaries are penalized the same amount as those with relatively high salaries. If someone is receiving a $24,000 annual federal pension, receiving 100% of earned Social Security benefits does not represent a windfall. People earning that little would not consider their rightful social security check a windfall. I suspect many worked those extra years (or extra jobs) simply because they needed that money to finance a reasonably secure, but certain not lush, retirement. That would be called "responsible." But the Congress, in its wisdom, broad-brushed the entire ‘system,’ used a politically acceptable (although largely incorrect) title, and produced a disaster from which retirees have yet to recover, and probably never will, thanks to the added deficits which Congress continues to impose on the citizenry.
WEP affected a mere 2+ million people and their family members. How many people will be impacted by health care legislation? Virtually everyone – 330+ million of us. If WEP caused the level of suffering with merely 2 million folks, what can the American public expect 5, 10, or 20 years from now with massive, well-intended changes to an entire health care delivery structure?
Fix our current system first. Show that you – and others in our nation – have the courage and wisdom to do so. Build up your credibility rather than merely writing laws and making speeches that misrepresent the hazards of venturing into the unknown at untold costs to the public. Plus, avoid the trap of using the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) 10-year cost timeline, when those informed know that costs spike shortly after the usual 10-year period CBO uses in its analyses. Look at the 10, 15, and 25-year cost projections.
Medicare has existed since the mid-1960’s. We have grown familiar with that system for 4+ decades, yet its costs continue to soar. Fix the cost problem first.
Sincerely,
Your Constituent
Fred W. Apelquist, III, M.Ed.
Approximately 640 words.
© October 14, 2009
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