Open Letter to Congress on Health Care Reform

I strongly think you need to add the public plan option back into whatever bill you pass.

Also, any reform bill would have as it's most beneficial features the notions that insurance companies could not deny coverage due to so-called pre-existing conditions, and, once someone has coverage and is sick and therefore is using the coverage that they cannot be dropped. If the public plan is created, then those latter 2 elements are not as important, but if it does not, and only the private health insurance industry option remains then adding those restrictions is crucial to fix the system. Currently the private health insurance industry is effectively acting as a parasite on Americans, trying to extract as much profit as they can out of people, by looking for every excuse to charge them for things, while also looking for every excuse to deny or minimize the delivery of actual health care service. That to me is a broken system, and worse than that, predatory and evil.

One compromise variant on reform would be to say, fine, we won't add any additional regulations to the private health industry, but, in return, we will add a new public health program that (a) does have the qualities Americans want (can't deny, can't drop, no profit motive, with success measured by effectiveness which is in turn measured by health outcomes -- saving lives & improving health -- not by huge private profits for the fat cats at the top and their investor allies), and (b) is optional -- therefore, nobody is forced into it, and they can still choose the private insurance route, and the private industry would still be free to run their operation as they are today. In that scenario, let consumers & citizens decide which they prefer, and may the best offering win. Free market choice is a good thing, right? Republicans should love that, if they truly believe in the philosophy they advocate.

Also, if you pass a bill that requires everyone to buy private insurance, and yet at the same time you do not also pass strong enforceable measures to ensure that the private industry can't deny, can't drop, and doesn't game the system to maximize profits, then really what you are doing is passing a bill which is a big handout to the private health insurance industry and actually rewarding their current system, and increasing their revenue and profits by effectively giving them more customers -- forced customers, the best kind for monopolists, the worst for providing actual good service. Therefore, if you can't get enough votes to pass a bill that has the core elements Americans want (public plan option, and/or a new law that says can't deny and can't drop) then it's better to pass no bill at all. Better if you truly want to benefit your constituents: the American public, the little guy, the voter.