We have had lots of commentary on contacting senators and representatives. I recently wrote to Senator Hagan about the Senate HCR bill, asking that she support it. I got back a somewhat formulaic letter saying "I support something that might be a public option but not if tied to Medicare." That left me wondering what she would do about cloture and the final bill if it.
So - I wrote back to her (who knows who actually reads these things, but at least it will get a tick mark off in the "public option YES" column.
Go below for the letter.
Note - since sending the letter, the House stripped out the Medicare +5%, but the issue of allowing the perfect to kill the good still remains.
Senator Hagan:
Thanks for your support of health care reform. From the letter you recently sent me, I understand that you currently do not support a public option that is tied in any way to Medicare. As a physician I can certainly understand concerns around reimbursement tied to Medicare - even at Medicare +5%. That being said, somewhere between 25,000 and 45,000 American citizens die EVERY YEAR due to lack of medical insurance coverage. This is first and foremost a MORAL issue, and as a physician, I believe that it is morally irresponsible and unjustifiable to ignore this fact in order to put more money my pocketbook (or the pocketbook of insurance companies and drug companies).
I sincerely hope that you do not let your vision of the "perfect" get in the way of something that is so good that it could save up to 45,000 American lives and 1500 North Carolinian lives every year. Over the ten year estimates used to cost out health care reform, that equates to 450,000 Americans that could die because we did not do the right thing - even it that "right thing" didn't meet 100% of our personal preferences. 450,000 is about 9 times the number of Americans that died in Vietnam over a similar period of time. It is greater than the total number of Americans that died in WW II.
Please, when thinking about how you will vote, remember those lives that you can save.
To allow a filibuster of the Senate Health Care Reform bill or to vote against that bill consigns 1500 North Carolinians and 45,000 Americans to an early but preventable death every year that we delay passage.
Vote for life. Vote for reform. Vote for cloture and in favor of the Senate bill.
Thank-you
So who knows - but I feel better for having written.