I emailed my representative Carol Shae-Porter with some of my concerns on house bill H.R.3200 on August 12, 2009. It was a short messgae where I stated that I don't feel there has been enough time to openly discuss such a broad sweeping measure that will certainly affect everyone, and that more discussion needs to take place before just jumping on the band wagon. I also stated how I feel about SEC. 312 of the bill.

Her responce was as follows:

August 13, 2009

 Dear Mr. Maheu:

Thank you for contacting my office and sharing your thoughts with me regarding health care reform.

Our health care system is broken, and millions of families are suffering.  In our First District of New Hampshire, 67,000 have no health insurance at all.  Small businesses cannot afford to offer insurance to their workers.  A recent poll conducted by the Small Business Majority showed that only 48% of New Hampshire small businesses offer health insurance, and 76% said they are struggling to do so.  We know that in 2007, three out of ten young adult Americans were not insured because the premiums were too high or their employer did not offer insurance.  When I entered the workforce, insurance was easily available and affordable, but that is no longer true.  Premium costs have skyrocketed.  Insurance costs for small businesses have increased 129% since 2000, and their employees pay an average of 18% more in premiums than employees in big businesses.  That has forced businesses, individuals, and families to go without insurance.  Americans pay more than twice as much for health care than countries who offer universal health care, but we are not the healthiest and millions lack coverage. 

According to a recent article in Foster's Daily Democrat entitled "Area Ambulance Drivers Seeing More Uninsured," local ambulance drivers and firefighters have seen increased calls because people can no longer afford insurance to see a doctor.  One firefighter stated that these people are not just the unemployed-they are middle-class, working people.  The article reports that often when paramedics arrive at peoples' homes, the patients will refuse to go anywhere because they cannot afford to pay the ambulance fee or be treated at the hospital. 

Recently, the three Committees that have jurisdiction over the health care bill in the House of Representatives [Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Education and Labor] unveiled a health care reform bill that will increase health care coverage and affordability.  If health care reform legislation is enacted, the First District of New Hampshire stands to reap significant gains.  Individuals would gain access to high-quality, affordable health insurance, small businesses could receive tax credits to provide health insurance coverage, seniors would avoid the doughnut hole in Medicare Part D, families could escape bankruptcy due to unaffordable costs, and health care providers would be reimbursed for uncompensated care. 

The legislation, as introduced, creates a Health Insurance Exchange, a transparent and functional marketplace for qualified individuals and small employers to comparison shop among private and public insurers.  Within the Exchange there will be a new public option that will create a new choice in the system.  The public option will be subject to the same market reforms and consumer protections as private plans in the Exchange.  At a time when health care premiums are soaring, the public option will force insurance companies to compete for business. 

This bill also reduces the growth in health care spending.  It invests in prevention and wellness measures, and increases access to primary care.  It also stops insurance companies from denying coverage due to preexisting conditions, and reforms Medicare and Medicaid.  These savings will help families, employers, and taxpayers. 

I support the principle of health care reform, and I support a public option.  However, under this plan, if you are happy with your present insurance, you can keep it.  As a member of the Education and Labor Committee, I am closely monitoring the progress we are making towards reform. 

Again, thank you for contacting my office. It is a privilege to serve you in Washington.

Sincerely,

Carol Shea-Porter

Member of Congress

 

 

August 14, 2009

Dear Rep. Shea-Porter,

It looks to me like one of your major arguments here is that healthcare is currently too expensive. On this point I would agree, it is. One simple answer to help reduce this problem would be to enact those two evil words "tort reform". This is a subject that no elected official seems to want to talk about or even address, given that many lawyers are major contributors to so many campaigns around the country and these cases are their bread basket. Its common knowledge that the millions of frivolous lawsuits going to trial each year have driven up the cost of malpractice insurance to a point where some doctors can no longer even afford to practice while others have raised their prices to a point that even the insurance companies balk at them. Its not rocket science to see that "some" government regulation in the various areas of medicine (such as dropping or denying patients coverage due to illness) is needed. Making it more difficult for individuals to sue doctors just because they can, would also be a good place to start, but this isn't the way to go according to this administration. A complete government take over is the only way out of this mess and I like many other disagree.

In reading through the various parts of this bill, I see little in the way of fixing anything in the current system. In fact, it’s to the contrary. This bills main goal appears to be nothing more than a total government takeover of the healthcare system in this country. This is socialized medicine no matter how it’s interpreted by our representatives, and in those countries where the government controls medicine such as France (which has probably one of the most successful socialized healthcare systems though outlandishly expensive) the people are forced to pay the government 21% of their salary though part of that is paid for by the employer. You say that currently, small businesses can’t afford to offer their employees healthcare and that this plan will offer those businesses tax credits to do so. In theory that may be true, but small businesses will be forced to contribute a percentage to the exchange no matter what, forcing many to rethink their work force and forcing some to close their doors. The plan has to be paid for somehow (which I have heard little to nothing from our representatives as to how it is to be funded) and the middle class will bear the brunt of it.

There are other untruths in this plan that are not being talked about openly. Those who have insurance now will only be able to keep their insurance if the company selling it conforms to strict guidelines put in place by this government panel in a timely manner. And if the insured makes any changes to his plan whatsoever he/she will be forced to drop that insurance and buy from the exchange. You can try to tell me that this is good for me, as I’ve heard time and time again from Obama in the last several weeks, but this is entirely un-American in all its parts.

I will not go on and list the numerous freedoms that we as Americans will loose when this administration rams a bill that will change the face of society down our throats with no real discussion from the people. It’s obvious from the various news stories that Obama wants this plan to be his legacy at any cost. Even at the cost of a severely dwindling approval rating. The people don't like to be lied to and many are getting increasingly angry. This is not the way to get healthcare reform accomplished. 

Sincerely, 

Gary Maheu

Concerned Citizen

 

On Tuesday August 11, 2009 the President was in New Hampshire trying to dispel the rumors of his healthcare overhaul plan. The only problem is is that many of these rumors are actually true and in an article John Boehner of Ohio wrote on the US Today forums, he point out four big ones that don’t pass "the straight-face test".

• First, he said, "Under the reform we're proposing, if you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor," and "If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan." USA TODAY's assessment of this statement: "Not necessarily." And the Associated Press and ABC News have proved this claim false, noting that White House officials have acknowledged the president's rhetoric shouldn't be taken "literally." That's because the White House cannot guarantee that Americans will be able to keep their health plan. They simply don't know how many employers will drop their coverage altogether if their plan goes into effect. Experts at the Lewin Group estimate the number could be more than 100 million Americans.

• Second, the president said, "I look at the federal budget and realize that if we don't control costs on health care, there is no way for us to close the budget deficit — it will just keep on skyrocketing." Yet according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, the House Democrats' bill would raise costs and the deficit by $239 billion over 10 years.

• Third, the president said, "We're not talking about cutting Medicare benefits." But one of the reasons seniors are so alarmed is that the plan would cut Medicare to the tune of $361.9 billion over 10 years. That means fewer choices and lower quality care — exactly what then-Sen. Obama blasted during his campaign.

• Finally, the president claimed the plan will not lead to rationing. But the bill, on page 30, section 123, would create a "Health Benefits Advisory Committee" that would make determinations about what kinds of treatments, items and services can be covered within certain benefit classes, and what kind of cost sharing will occur.

This excerpt taken from http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/08/column-americans-arent-going-to-buy-health-care-spin-mr-president.html#more

Yesterday my state had the displeasure of having probably the worst president of all time visit it. His sole purpose to try and convince us that his pathetic bill should be passed, and that the many truths being told are actually lies and that we should not believe them. I have actually spent a considerable amount of time reading bill H.R.3200 and can not believe that even more people are not outraged by this.  The only reason this arrogant b*^$#^d is trying to pass this bill before the masses get wind of all the BS that is in it is because he wants to stamp his name on legislation that will change the world so he can die saying he did something important (this only because he has never done a worthwhile thing in his life). The bill will certainly change the world alright, to a point that we will probably see an uprising rivaling the revolution. Millions of Americans will loose their jobs and small businesses will close because of this bill. Small business will not be able to afford the contributions and the people will be fired so these businesses can remain in operation. Most Americans are happy with the way things are and don't want the government telling them how to live. This bill is no good, plain and simple. Read it for yourself and see. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.3200: 

There has never been one business that the US government has tried to run that has had any amount of success. Just look at the facts. This is just another example of pure arrogance run riot. 

This time the flip flop is only slightly for the better.

At an AFL-CIO confrence in 2003 this is what BHO had to say, “I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its Gross National Product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that’s what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House.”
In 2009 at a town hall meeting in Rio Rancho New Mexico President Barack Obama was asked why have they taken single-payer off the plate, "If I were starting a system from scratch then I think that the idea of moving toward a single-payer system could very well make sense.  That's the kind of system that you have in most industrialized countries around the world.  The only problem is that we're not starting from scratch.  We have historically a tradition of employer-based healthcare.  And, although there are a lot of people who are not satisfied with their health care, the truth is that the vast majority of people currently get health care from their employers, and you've got this system that's already in place." 
He goes on to say that if you already have healthcare than you dont have to change a thing. This is not totally true. Not only will you automatically be dumped from that plan in five years, but if you make any chnages to the plan at all ANY, you will be forced to go on to the public pla.

You can read more on this and some of the other freedoms you will lose with Obama's plan here