Subject:
VOTE NO ON BAUCUS "BILL"
To:
Sen. Thomas Carper
October 13, 2009
Please vote against the Baucus health care plan. I would call it a bill,
but it isn't even that. There is no actual legislative language, merely a
draft. If you vote for this, you will be willingly participating in a
sham. You, your colleagues, and the American people all know that
whatever Senator Baucus' plan contains now, after the rest of Congress get their hands on it, it will bear little resemblance to its current form.
If you were to vote for it, you would, in essence, be handing a blank
check to the Democrats. I really think that we have had enough of the
Democrats having a blank check to play with, don't you?
Not only are the ideas in the current plan amorphous, so is the price tag.
I know that you were very interested in finding out what the CBO had to
say about this plan. Although they project that this plan would lower the
deficit over ten years, we can all see that in the first ten years, the
taxes and "fees" (also taxes) begin immediately, but the benefits don't
kick in for years. During the next ten years, the cost goes up
dramatically, raising the deficit yet again. I believe our country
already has about $67 TRILLION in unfunded mandates stretching far into
our future. It would be utterly irresponsible and reprehensible for you
and your colleagues to deepen that pit for our children and grandchildren.
If these first two examples of dishonesty within this plan were not bad
enough, the faulty assumptions it contains are even more ridiculous. Is
Congress really going to cut Medicare payments to physicians by 25%??? If so, I guess we really had better investigate moving to Costa Rica, like
some of my husband's colleagues. We certainly will have even more
difficulty paying off the $174,000 my husband still owes in medical school
loans, especially since we live in a retirement city full of Medicare
patients.
We do need to reform health care, but the measures that are currently
being discussed seem destined to destroy the entire system, rather than
build on its current strengths. We hear talk of paying all doctors
equally, which will only guarantee that in short order we will have no
neurosurgeons, cardiologists, oncologists, interventional radiologists,
etc. These specialties, among others, require many years, and in some
cases, more than a decade, or training. Additionally, many require
expensive specialized equipment that must be paid for by the physicians.
Please vote against any health care reform bill that does not allow
inter-state competition, portability of coverage, or address tort reform.
Additionally, please vote against any measure that cannibalizes $500
billion dollars of money previously allocated to Medicare, which is
already headed for bankruptcy in the next few years.
Taxing "Cadillac" insurance plans (let's start with yours!) or medical
devices will only serve to pass the cost on to consumers, i.e. taxpayers.
So much for not taxing anyone who isn't "rich." Do you really think
someone who is disabled enough to need a walker or wheelchair has extra money to pay these costs?
As for the "public option", only Congress would have gall to tell the
American people they were going to create a new entitlement, complete with a new bureaucracy, and that it will actually save us taxpayers money! No, we will pay for it, in the form of taxes, fees, and increased insurance premiums. How stupid does Congress think the American people are, exactly? All this, and you still won't be covering 29 million people.
Where will you get all the doctors to care for these additional patients? Trust me, you'll have to invade Central and South America to drag them back here!
Also, I think it only fair to ask you to actually READ THE BILL before
voting on it. If you insist upon a public option, than you should agree
to use that option for yourself and for your own family.
Instead of hurriedly rushing through a cobbled-together mess of
unintelligible gibberish that no one can understand, I ask you to take the
time to put together a thoughtful, truly bi-partisan bill to help this
country's citizens. The politization of this process will result in a
terrible system that we will all have to live with.
I write on my husband's behalf as well, who is, of course, too busy caring
for patients to take the time to write.
Please, for once, don't play politics. Do the right thing for your
constituents and all our citizens!
Thank you.
P.S. The woman who confronted Senator Spector in the Pennsylvania
townhall forum was correct: you (meaning Congress) have awakened a
sleeping giant. We were previously quite uninvolved politically.
However, we now see what our country has become, with a never-ending pit of debt and an anemic dollar. You may feel safe ignoring my opinion if I'm not your constituent, but fortunately, I am still allowed to
contribute to campaigns throughout the country, and I am not alone. We
have donated several hundred dollars this past year, and plan to
contribute far more as we approach the next round of elections. At this point, we will do whatever it takes to store our country to its traditionall greatness (and solvency).
Kerrville , TX
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