Here's a letter I got back from my Democratic Senator...and I am thinking of responding as stated below...
Dear Mrs. Bennett:
Thank you for contacting me regarding the health care reform process. Anyone who has battled a major illness knows the system is broken, and we can no longer wait to fix it.
Yeah, and those in the UK who have been on a waiting list to get treatment for lung cancer (and are now incurable even though they were curable when they got on the list) think their system is broken too.
The health care industry is massive and complex, and there are a range of ideas on the table for reforming it. Chief among our aims must be to rein in the out-of-control costs of care.
How about WHY these costs are OUT-OF-CONTROL? This means a new emphasis on wellness and prevention
Great...but what about giving insentives and discounts to companies who develop their own wellness programs like Disney does?, a recommitment to researching innovative, more effective treatments for diseases
Um...that costs money dood, and additional efforts to lower the cost of prescription drugs. I introduced the Medicare Prescription Drug Gap Reduction Act (S.266) to reduce the large gap known as the "doughnut hole"
Okay, like Homer Simpson, I'm now hungry that occurs when Part D beneficiaries who have paid pay $2,700 in prescription expenses receive no further benefit until they have racked up a total of $4,350 in out-of-pocket expenses, despite the fact that they never stop paying premiums.
Equally important is the issue of the uninsured. Nearly 50 million Americans lack adequate health insurance
and what percentage of those folks are illegal immigrants?, and that is unacceptable. I am working toward reforms that would make health insurance available to all Americans through an insurance exchange and would provide subsidies to those who cannot afford coverage
who determines who can't "afford" it...like those who would rather spend their money on Nintendo games may say they can't "afford it". I also believe that Americans should never be denied health insurance or charged exorbitant fees because of a pre-existing condition.
Finally, we must ensure that there are enough health care providers in America and that they are adequately reimbursed by Medicare and Medicaid so they can continue providing care to those most in need. I introduced S. 973, the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2007, to address this growing problem
this sounds good but I'm not a fan of Medicare and Medicaid either so there you go. This legislation would expand the number of Medicare-supported physician residency training positions, with an emphasis on funding new primary care residency slots. The number of physician residents eligible for reimbursement has not been altered to reflect changing demand since 1996. I have also fought consistently for fair Medicare reimbursement rates.
The task before us is immense, but Americans will rise to the challenge. I will be sure to take your views into consideration as the debate progresses. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future.
This is all fine and good and I appreciate that you are always the first of my congressman/senators to respond when I send my concerns...but my point is that my biggest problem is how people feel they are entitled to good health insurance...Remember it used to be called Medical Insurance that would cover you for catastrophic illness that would be impossible to pay for...but over the years of government involvement it's turned into people not expected to pay anything for medical care including getting a hangnail removed other than a small co-pay. Before the world of HMO's and all that stuff we had this thing called competition in the marketplace that applied to doctors and health care providers too...this is how costs were kept down. But then we had Medicare/Medicaid and Doctors had to start either charging more to make up for the amount they are are no longer getting due to these low negotiated rates OR they have to see more patients giving each patient 5 minutes with their doctor instead of 10 minutes...quality of care obviously went down.
Instead of making it seem so complex, it's really quite simple...get rid of all these "entitlements" and make people pay for the services they get...shocking!
Sincerely,
Senator Bill Nelson
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