Forget congress- EVERYONE CONTACT THE WHITE HOUSE

Dear Mr. President:

I appreciate your courage in tackling needed health "insurance" reform in the United States. As a liberal Democrat, I wish to express my utter disdain and frustration with the bills currently working their way through Congress. None of what has been proposed is acceptable to me. We need single-payer "Medicare for all," and I do not believe the proposed plans, except HB 676, can get us there. In fact, it seems the result of passing "insurance reform" at the moment would be to strengthen the private insurance companies by giving them nearly 50 million new customers, all of whom must buy their products or become criminals. Passing such a bill will strengthen the insurance companies which, in turn, will make it much harder for us to get single-payer in the long run.

I would rather Democrats pass no bill than to pass any bill with the "individual mandate." No person, just for being alive, should be forced to buy anything, much less be forced to purchase the product of a vampiric insurance company.

Forcing people to buy insurance is no more the solution to a failed health care system than forcing people to buy houses is the solution to homelessness. In fact, that is insane, and passing such a law can only hurt the Democratic Party in the long run as millions of uninsured people are forced to pay a whopping new tax to buy an inferior product that will only help the insurance industry. Please drop this issue, for now, if you lack the will or the votes to give us real reform.

Thank you for your service to our country and for your attention to my concerns.

Respectfully,

We have now seen very clearly once again how interested the Republicans are in compromise--zero percent. They are willing to spend millions through right wing PR groups fanning dangerous flames of fear and hatred to defeat the public option. They have gone too far but have been able to rely on our conservative-owned broadcast media conglomerates to support their pretense that the town hall shout-downs are genuine "grass roots" events. Thank goodness we have a few token liberal news shows that are exposing the multi-million dollar campaigns to protect privatized medicine.

I want Single Payer Now, as close to HR 676 as we can get. We average people need our bailout. We are quite desperate.

I have experienced the deep security one feels under a national health plan. When living abroad I was covered by such a plan. The health-for-profit industries don't want the public to feel that deep comfort. Neither do the Republicans. They know people will be grateful to the Democrats for decades if they free us from the horrible insecurity we now have-- of bankruptcy or homelessness if we get too sick.

I know the power of millions in campaign funding must be very strong because Democrats have so often caved in to it, even while knowing how much we need help and would appreciate them for admitting that healthcare is a right and not a privilege. Knowing we would love Democrats for a long time for helping us hasn't been enough for most of them to do the moral, ethically correct thing and extend Medicare to all. It saddens me as a citizen to know Democrats have rested on the-- "so who else are they going to vote for-- right wing nut job Republicans?" Rather than doing a great thing that would make us very grateful as giving us Social Security and Medicare did.

I do not want employer tied health insurance because it puts me at a distinct disadvantage. I am an older worker and insurance companies discriminate against older workers by charging a company 300% more to insure me than a younger worker. Even if they can deduct those expenses later, the initial monthly outlay is very large for a nonprofit or smaller business to handle. Employer tied health insurance really encourages age discrimination. Are my 25 years of solid work experience and good references really worth them having to pay 300% more for my insurance? Is that why so many job ads are seeking workers with "2 or 3 years experience" these days? I would have a much better chance in the job market if I had my single payer medical care.

The healthcare profiteers against Single Payer or a meaningful public option seem to like the coop concept-- either as another way to delay reform or something that can be made too expensive and complex and defeat that pesky reform talk for a long time.

The Medical Industrial Complex knew that the August recess could be dangerous. The American public could be discussing the elephant in the living room-- The for-profit healthcare industries HAVE FAILED MISERABLY TO PROVE THEIR CASE since the last time they stomped out national health insurance in the 90's. They have failed. Things have gone from bad to worse. We could have been spending August talking about the many problems with the current system and how they told us last time that the private sector could manage itself and things have gotten much worse.

So they engineered this shout-down campaign with "grass roots" organizations that have "been around for years" (just dormant during the destructive Bush-Cheney Regime) to create a major distraction from the for-profit medical insurance system's complete failure to initiate any "voluntary reforms."

The for-profit medical industries have shown their willingness to spend millions and risk inflaming desperate public sentiment just to protect their billions in profits and divert the discussion from their failures. Enough is enough-- Single Payer Now !!

Furthermore, if these dangerous tactics win on smashing the most effective public options, the right wing will celebrate and go on to use the same shout-downs to defeat much needed environmental reform. We have a lot more tough choices ahead of us and don't want these dangerous lunatics to keep going with their social engineering to see if they can get people to storm the townhalls to defeat measures to curb further atmospheric deterioration.

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P.S. I can also see other PR angles and wonder why they aren't utilized-- like the old saw about the ingenuity of American business. Why can't we push the angle that the for-profit medical insurance companies are run by brilliant CEOs who have been worth millions in salaries, so surely those extremely valuable leaders will find ways of re-engineering their businesses to serve the public, even after Single Payer passes.