I finally received a response from Bart Gordon, my Congressman. He totally ignored my request for a debate. Now I know why.
I had challenged him before the August recess. As September has arrived, that means it took him a month to respond. It is obvious from his email that he would have had to come unarmed to any battle of wits. I will present that email as proof. Remember, he sits on the Health Subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Dear Crawford,
Thank you for contacting me about national health care reform legislation. Like most hard-working Americans, I believe we need to make health care more affordable for everyone. But, on an issue this important, it is much better to take the time and get it right than to get it done quickly. That is why I helped ensure that no bill would be considered in the House this summer.
I am disappointed in his response to the concerns I expressed about healthcare reform. First, I offered to debate him in a public forum during the August recess. There is no mention of that in his email. Also, I find his email regrettable in its lack of consistency, facts and logic.
Notice also that he brags about delaying consideration of any reform bill. Let’s be honest. Delay is no more nor less than the favored tactic of the health industry. He is taking credit for following orders. Teddy Roosevelt included a universal healthcare proposal as a part of his campaign platform in 1912. FDR proposed it. HST proposed it. JFK proposed it. Jimmy Carter proposed it. Bill Clinton proposed it. And, Bart Gordon thinks we need to take our time. How many have died and will die while Bart diddles?
Currently, we spend one out of every six dollars in the United States on health care, and the cost of health care is rising twice as fast as inflation with no end in sight. Tennessee’s small business owners and other hard working people are telling me they can’t keep up with the cost of their health insurance premiums. Insurance costs for small businesses have risen 129% since 2000. If we do nothing, these costs will further strain families and businesses, and will threaten to bankrupt the country as well. It will be impossible to cut the national debt unless we deal with health care spending.
So, small businesses, families and the national debt will just have to wait while Bart diddles. Also, notice how he begins speaking of healthcare reform but quickly changes the subject to health insurance.
There are several principles that I believe must be addressed in any health care reform measure: the package must be deficit neutral;
Other than single-payer (HR676), none of the proposals can be deficit neutral without significant tax increases or massive cuts in other necessary programs. Such “savings” as al-PhARMA’s $80 billion concession are silly promises from proven liars. The bulk of that $80 billion goes to seniors in the do-nut hole to buy brand name drugs instead of generics. It will be a bonanza for the drug companies. And, that is only $8 billion per year. The immediate savings of single-payer are more than $400 billion annually from one category alone. Every other plan increases the number of customers, income and profits for AHIP and al-PhARMA. Much of that will cost the government in massive subsidies. The other plans are not deficit neutral. Delay is not deficit neutral. Bart can’t count.
it must make health coverage more affordable for individuals and small businesses;
Eliminating preexisting condition bans will require higher premiums. Requiring small businesses to cover more people doesn’t seem to be a way to make it more affordable. The first point of this paragraph would also apply to individual coverage.
it must ensure coverage is portable when you change or lose your job;
He wants to maintain our traditional method of employer-based plans. Can you imagine the complexities and inefficiencies of making these portable? Will your new employer provide the same plan, or any? Will the government or your former employer pay for your policy while you are unemployed? Some will lose a gold-plated plan along with their job. Others will lose a less attractive plan. Will both plans be maintained? Will there not be cries of that being inequitable?
it must end barriers to coverage for people who get sick or have a pre-existing medical condition; and it must ensure that insurance companies are not able to deny, limit, or specially price your insurance because of a pre-existing condition.
The insurance companies publicly and explicitly promised the Congress that they would accomplish universal coverage and eliminate preexisting condition prohibitions in 1993. Who will guarantee that if not the government?
I do not support a single-payer health care system. Health care reform must preserve the employer-based health care system so Americans can choose their own doctors and hospitals. No one, including the government or your insurance company, should be able to make life-and-death decisions for you.
Here is where Bart proclaims his devotion to employer-based plans. Why? So that we can choose our own doctors and hospitals. In the past 6 years I have had more than 30 doctors and more than 15 surgical procedures. Nashville is known as a national center for healthcare. Medicare has never questioned any choice of doctor or hospital. I have friends whose private insurance has refused to pay for certain doctors or hospitals. I consider myself knowledgeable enough to find the best doctors in the area. Such nonsense as Bart is spouting are mere scare tactics straight from the lobbyist-supplied playbook of talking points. He is on a government-run healthcare plan. Does it deny him his choices? I think not.
As here, I frequently hear, explicitly or implicitly, that we must preserve our private health insurance system. However, no one has dared to say why. The reason for that lack of an answer is that there is no reason. No health insurance company has ever cured a single malady. They are, however, responsible for innumerable deaths through denial and other forms of rationing. I don’t give a fig for the insurance companies. They add absolutely no value to healthcare.
The best analogy I can come up with for the health insurance industry is the Mafia. If someone comes in and insists that you must pay them 30% of the value of your inventory for protection, you consider that a protection racket, a criminal enterprise. That analogy fails because the Mafia will actually protect you as long as you make payments.
The private insurance companies commonly make life and death decisions for their customers. I have yet to run into that with Medicare. It seems unlikely that people on Medicare would rate their plan more favorably than any other group if the government was trying to kill them. The intended inference is that only single-payer will take those decisions from you. Bart is full of bat feces.
There has been a great deal of misinformation out there. AARP and other organizations are working to clarify this information. To read about myths and facts related to health care reform, you can visit AARP’s health page at http://www.aarp.org/health.
True. There is a great deal of misinformation out there, and in his email. He and his owners are the ones responsible for promulgating it. He suggests checking with AARP. Does that make sense? AARP receives the bulk of its income from selling insurance and publishing ads for the health industry.
There is no single bill before Congress right now, there are five different health care reform proposals in the House and Senate and several more steps in the legislative process before any legislation will be enacted.
Actually, there are only four bills. The Senate Finance Committee members, aside from the Gang of 6, have been complaining of being kept in the dark. Their bill has not surfaced. Again, Bart can’t count.
Passing no bill at all is better than passing something that makes things worse.
That is a truism. It’s difficult to imagine creating worse than what we presently have but politicians such as Bart are fully capable of pulling it off.
I hope that we can improve the health care system for everyone, and will continue to work with my Democratic and Republican colleagues to accomplish this.
Other than the select group of Blue Dogs, I see no evidence of his working with the Democrats. I hope he is not wasting his time working with the Republicans on this issue.
Thank you again for contacting me.
G
How cutesy.
Sincerely,
BART GORDON
Member of Congress
It should now be obvious why he fails to respond to my challenge.
email2friend
