Senator Jay Rockefeller's Opinion on Obamacare... (Washington, War: middle-class, health insurance, how much)
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I have just received a response from Senator Rockefeller in response to my letter asking him not to support Obamacare.
My letter to our Senators:
Please do not allow This Country to become the next failed socialist experiment.
Vote in accordance with the will of the people you are supposed to represent.
Vote against any form of a federal health care or insurance program. No Obamacare!
The President's office has committed an outrageous abuse of the first amendment in our Bill of Rights by asking for reporting of anyone giving 'fishy' information or comments about his healthcare plan. You must rebuke him for this. Is this not The United States of America? The country founded on freedom, The Constitution and the rule of law.
Please, please carry out the commitment you have sworn to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic”
Thank You,
Clint Sullivan
Senator Rockefeller's response:
Dear Clint,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts regarding comprehensive health care reform. I understand how important this issue is to you, as it is to me, and I am grateful you have been in touch about it.
When I first began my career in public service, I learned a valuable lesson: health care is a right and should not merely be a privilege. Today, it is an undeniable fact that thousands of families in our state carry the burden of failed health care policies and unmet promises. Roughly 17 percent of West Virginians have decided at one point or another not to visit a doctor because they could not afford it. More than 75 percent of people who cited medical expenses in their bankruptcy claims actually had health insurance, and most of them had jobs. How is this possible in a country as bountiful as ours? This is a question that has been left unanswered for far too long. With more than 45 million uninsured Americans, I believe more strongly than ever that we must not lose sight of the moral imperative to extend health care coverage that is affordable and meaningful to every American.
Right now, I believe that we are at a turning point - not just in Congress - but in West Virginia and across the country. We have a profound opportunity to fix a broken system and make life better for millions of Americans. As part of his Fiscal Year 2010 (FY10) budget request to Congress, President Obama proposed $950 billion in savings to pay for comprehensive health care reform. No President in history has made such a sizable funding commitment to health care in an annual budget. Now, it is up to Congress to continue its work on the details of reform, so that we can submit a comprehensive plan to the President this year. We cannot afford to wait.
There are real people in West Virginia with real lives hanging in the balance. So many individuals in our communities feel alone in their struggles within this broken system, and just one serious illness threatens to send their entire world tumbling down. These are people we know: a husband or a wife, a son or a daughter, a mom or a dad, a church member or a co-worker. The growing and deeply felt insecurity of being one step removed from disaster runs like a common thread throughout our entire health care system. It is this experience that has led me to embrace three straightforward principles which guide every decision I make in Washington on the subject of health care - availability, affordability, and accountability.
First, I believe health coverage should always be available, whether it is private coverage or public programs, so that everyone can enroll. This is the basic concept of universal coverage I have always believed in. Our current system has so many gaps that millions go without coverage - including 250,000 people who are uninsured in West Virginia. Some are chronically uninsured, some from a job loss, some are students, and some have hit the ceiling on the amount of coverage their insurance provides. Recent data shows that over one-third of Americans have either experienced gaps in their insurance or relied on public programs for part of their coverage. As many as one in five uninsured Americans have no coverage at all because they have changed or lost their job. That is simply unacceptable.
In order to finally make health care available to all, we should continue the tax-exemption for employer-provided health care, provide universal coverage to kids, and allow retirees between ages 55 and 64 to buy into Medicare. We should also expand Medicaid for those who need it, help small businesses provide health benefits to their employees, and finally create a long-term care program in this country.
Second, health coverage also must be affordable, so that individuals, families, and small businesses can handle the costs of coverage. Americans are forced to spend more and more of their income on health care each year. And, those with health insurance are often not protected from even higher costs in the face of severe illness. This has to stop and there are several serious proposals under consideration for increasing health care affordability and reducing costs - for families and for the system as a whole. The first of these is a public health insurance option. As the original author of the Consumers Health Care Act (S. 1278) in the Senate, I want to be clear that the public option is voluntary, and it is an option. It would simply guarantee that there is at least one health insurance plan out there that ordinary Americans can afford and can count on even when they get sick. It is stable and it is affordable, and it actually saves money in the federal budget by acting as a counterweight to profit-driven insurance companies.
Cost savings are also possible in Medicare. By this, I do not mean charging seniors more for less. That is not a policy I would ever support. The proposal I have been working on would prevent Medicare from going broke, as it is on track to do by 2017. It would eliminate the special interests and the politicians from the process of determining Medicare payment, and instead allow independent experts to make the best decisions about how much we should pay health care providers. Gradually, these experts will carefully discipline this essential part of our health care safety net, and do so without sacrificing access to necessary care for our seniors and individuals with disabilities.
Third, health coverage must be accountable, which means the insurance you buy today will be there when you need it tomorrow. As Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, I have been investigating the insurance industry and uncovering some incredibly disturbing facts about the deceptive practices insurance companies use. In order to maximize their profits, insurance companies are discriminating against people with pre-existing health conditions, hiding onerous caps on coverage in legalistic fine print, cutting off small businesses when someone who works there gets ill, and systematically overcharging for co-payments. As a result, many middle-class and working families, who have paid their premiums faithfully for years, abruptly find they are dumped from their insurance and have no protection against the financial ruin they worked so hard to prevent.
It is clear that the insurance industry needs to be reined in. So far, it looks like all sides agree on the importance of new insurance rules as part of health reform, which will go a long way toward treating hard-working Americans with dignity and basic fairness.
I refuse to believe that a better health care system is not possible. It is, and I am going to continue to fight for comprehensive health reform every single day. I will have your thoughts and experiences clearly in mind as Congress moves forward in enacting meaningful and comprehensive health care reform.
Thank you again for writing. It is always good to hear from my fellow West Virginians about matters of importance. Best wishes.
With Warm Regards,
Jay Rockefeller
So many points I disagree with. Health care is a "right"? I can't find that anywhere in the constitution. It's not even logical. What is "health care" anyway? The general "health care" notion that is espoused has no direct correlation to well being, or longevity for that matter. Health insurance is a new concept and within, what, 60 years it’s now a right? The founding documents guarantee the right to the pursuit of happiness, not the attainment of happiness or to always feel good or to live to a certain age. If health care is a right then the government has the responsibility to assign a personal doctor & emergency crew with all the currently available equipment to me all the time.
I do agree that availability of affordable medical procedures is beneficial to quality of life, well being and longevity. But a doctor can't just be a doctor any more. To deal with the regulations, and complex billing system he needs a support team and a larger and larger patient load to pay for the support team and the malpractice insurance. We could actually still have affordable doctors & medical services if the courts weren’t dolling out ridiculous malpractice settlements. [Like the smoker settlement just set forth for the 90+ year old man whose wife smoked herself to death at the age of 70. The jury came up with the fantastical number of $5M+ in compensatory damages but then divided responsibility down to a ½% between her and the tobacco company giving the husband a settlement of about $1.9M.]
Lawyers are a big part of the problem, and drug companies pushing drugs for every kind of slight discomfort, and government regulations pushed by one lobbyist or another, and us for swallowing it all.
He ends it with “It is always good to hear from my fellow West Virginians…” Yet clearly has stated throughout the body of the letter that he could care less what my opinion is, which he is suppose to represent; he has only given me his opinion and tried to change my mind because he’s going to support it no matter what we think. This is not the way it is supposed to work. We need term limits.
(stepping down from my soap box) I've got to get back to work to pay for my health insurance premium.
Although my original letter to Rockefeller was not the same as yours, I received the exact same reply this morning. None of my specific questions were answered and I got the same canned Party Line response as you. Neither Rockefeller nor any other politician cares much what we think...or want...they don't even read their constituant's communications much less take the time to draft an intelligent reply (I have written Mansion several Emails and have yet to receive even a "canned" reply) The tax payers, in a population of 300 million people, are paying the salaries of 545 politicians who ignore the wishes of the very people that hired them!!!
Actually, the constitution has that clause about how congress can levy taxes to provide for the general welfare of the populace...as such, he could argue that gov't provided healthcare is constitutional.
Just sayin.
I'm all for the Obama plan from a greed perspective...more patients means there will be more medical jobs, yet care will still be between private entities, which means there will be competition in the job market...which means I'll get paid more...woo.
That's actually the flaw in the plan, IMO. Why have an insurance industry middle man? They just siphon off profits. They provide no value or real service. They just make enormous profits manipulating money...and rejecting as many claims as humanly possible. But people are cool with that because of an irrational fear of "socialism." Odd that nobody is marching in the street opposed to the military...the US military is the most expensive socialistic enterprise in the history of mankind. Either way, big brother is going to be too involved in healthcare. Be it a corporate CEO or a gov't bureaucrat.
I agree that health insurance is probably one of the biggest problems with health care. Yes you could say that any form of insurance is a socialistic endeavor in that funds are taken from all participants then given back to some participants according to need. At least private health insurance is not mandated, yet, in wv or the US. So you have the option to not participate. And I still have the opportunity, limited as it may be, to shop for the best plan & the most competitive rate based on the risks which I am willing to take. And I do every year when my plan is up for renewal.
I have had more than my share of first hand knowledge of the stupidity of the system.
Years ago we had insurance which excluded many of our "pre-existing" conditions one of which was my wife's chronic ear infections or any thing which could be remotely connected to it. So when it was discovered that she had a tumor in her ear which would require surgery, we had do do some shopping. It turns out that the amount you pay for services depends on quite a few factors. I remember calling one group to get a quote on a very specific set of MRI shots as dictated by her surgeon; I don't think they had ever been asked for a price. They didn't know how to give us a quote if we didn't have insurance coverage. Turned out that usually the price is much higher if you are insured. Then when they or you file the claim they usually get paid some lesser amount according to the insurer's guidelines for the service. But it was still usually much cheaper when we said we were paying out of our own pocket.
I don't quite understand your analogy of the US military.
Odd that nobody is marching in the street opposed to the military...the US military is the most expensive socialistic enterprise in the history of mankind.
For starters, they have lots of guns . . and the consequences of opposition to those with lots of guns is pretty much the same throughout history. I'm just guessing, but it's probably why the initiators of our form of government put militia under civilian control.
Where I can't argue with your opinion about the nature of our military being socialist, I could point to its roots in this country being similar to a fire department, based on a volunteer system, which is, in my opinion, communism in its pure form, but can equally be argued as capitalist, as the motivation is barter; I'll help you put out your fire as its in my interest to do so because my house won't burn down too, and next time, you help me, as its in your interest to do so. Neighborhood watch programs, etc.
That all said, Communism (with a capital C), is a political religion, and only works in theory, and I entitle people to believe what they will to the extent it's not a threat to me. And I'll admit, there have been examples of socialism in history that have probably tainted my view of the word, i.e.,
Nationalsozialist
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
The proposal I have been working on would prevent Medicare from going broke, as it is on track to do by 2017.
This is where the conversation should have begun, long ago, but the Federal Government has refused to admit it is insolvent, instead, compounding problems under some new ruse, flavor of the day, to support subsequent financial bubbles to inevitably burst. This health care proposal is first and foremost, a solution for the Federal Government, which can not by law, declare bankruptcy . . the intent, therefore, is self-serving to the Federal Government, and not necessarily of mutual interest to the people.
Saw on TV news this AM that Rocky has come out arm-in-arm with Pelosi and her pals in having a "revolt" cuz Obama is talking about taking the public option out of the HC matter.
Someone remind me again why we keep re-electing him? Think we can have a do-over election?
Must take issue with WVUPharm about the most expensive army in the world...that would be the Chinese Army with 2.5 million troops.
Our military is a small troop of Boy Scouts beside them.
Our entire Marine Corps (our total fighting units) a small patrol...
Remember the history of Rome....
From what the internet tells me, the US spent something like $100 billion more a year on the military than the rest of the world combined...we're a bunch of freakin' Pinko commies, I tell ya...
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