Lancaster Eagle-Gazette letter from Jim N. Reed: Are law-abiding citizens not deserving of same health care benefits received by U.S. Congress?

Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, March 17, 2010

http://www.lancastereaglegazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20103170311

Healthcare Reform: Some Basic Questions

Even in an age of bitter political philosophical partisanship (death panels or dignity preserving end-life physician consultation), there is agreement that the current healthcare system is unsustainable and must be reformed. Some pertinent questions should be addressed.

Who was not relieved when their parents reached Social Security and Medicare age? Which of us would deny veterans' health benefits to a great uncle who served in WWII? Who would refuse SCHIP's medical attention to children totally dependent on the adults in their world? (Do we punish innocent children by withholding healthcare because their parents may not be meeting their obligations to society?)

Have these above programs constituted a stifling government take-over of our healthcare system? Is this dreaded socialism? What about district fire departments, police protection, EMS services, ODOT and public libraries? (Maybe Ben Franklin was a closet socialist.)

Does the current health delivery system not restrict, limit delivery of wellness when corporate greed determines when insurance is rejected for a pre-existing condition or determines the policy holder is rescinded or is left uninsured when premium costs become prohibitive? Anyone see something unacceptable about an industry that profited nearly $13 billion last year while discarding 2.7 million customers?

Is there not a dilemma when a health insurance industry profits best by refusing to deliver its product? Are law-abiding citizens not deserving of the same kind of healthcare benefits received by the U.S. Congress? After all, we pay their salaries and provide their benefits from a Federal Employees program. By their own admission, this public option system provides legislators and their families the best healthcare in the world. Some would say this smacks of socialism? Ever wonder why the congressional opponents of reform have not opted out of their public option healthcare?

Would it not be a responsibility to do some homework on the subject, review the analysis of an insurance industry insider like Wendell Potter, use some fact checker, and write your healthcare-protected senators and representative and tell them to provide for your family what they have been given for theirs by you?

Jim N. Reed
Baltimore, Ohio