A House candidate’s take on health reform

A House candidate’s take on health reform

To the editor:
    I am angry. I am also disappointed, amazed, and appalled, but mostly I am angry. I am amazed at how 219 people in a matter of minutes can totally disregard and disrespect the very foundation of this nation, our Constitution. Last week Congress voted in the middle of the night to force through a bill that America didn’t want, those votes were not won by calls from the people but rather threats, empty promises, and bribes. 

    Don’t get me wrong I am 100 percent in favor of healthcare reform but that wasn’t reform. I am a manager of a small convenience store, our part-time employees are not offered health insurance, not that they could afford it even if it was offered. I say this because I am a full time salaried manager and I cannot afford the health insurance plan. So I go without, I pay for my health care as I need to.
    My father fought in Vietnam, he was a nurse in a local hospital for years, a few years ago he became gravely ill and is now disabled, blind, and his continued health issues are causing the medical bills to stack up on my mother’s desk. My mother, also a nurse, works and can barely make ends meet, she can’t move to a better hospital with better pay because of my father’s pre-existing conditions so she works here to keep up the insurance. Do I think that it is right? No, personally I think that if you fought in a war for our country you should get free health care for life, and not at a veterans hospital miles away but at the hospital of your choice, with a tier system for other who served in non war capacities.
    There shouldn’t be pre-existing conditions that bar someone from getting health care, insurance companies shouldn’t be able to drop people, these companies need to be reformed but not like this. Everyone deserves health care, good health care, health care that lets children grow up healthy and the elderly not have to decide between their heart medication or heating oil for their home. We cannot, however, achieve this with this bill.
    Having said that I think that health care reform can come from Augusta not from Washington. All we need to do is to look to our neighbors … no not Canada, New Hampshire. If we simply copy their laws and open up interstate competition, removing the monopoly that Maine health care companies have, the cost of health care in Maine would drop by at least 40 percent.
    With the state employing around 30,000 employees they could save themselves tens of millions of dollars. And that math is very rough with very conservative estimates; the real savings would likely be far greater. The millions of dollars in savings could then be used for improving education, infrastructure, or paying for the unfunded liabilities that will potentially bankrupt the state if not addressed.
    Washington could have passed a bill that included small steps that would have made a dramatic difference in the lives of everyone. Instead they passed a bill that most of America was not ready to approve. They did it with bought votes, lies and threats. They passed something they admit needs to be fixed. They did it knowing that more than half the states were preparing to sue them based on the fact that the bill violates the Constitution of the United States. The federal government cannot force people to buy a product, if the Constitution does not specifically say that the Feds have that power then they do not, and that power then falls to the state or people.
    I don’t know about you but I don’t agree with passing something you know isn’t right. Why didn’t Congress send the bill back to committee to fix the problems they admit are present in the bill, it’s because a good healthcare bill isn’t what they were trying to achieve. This isn’t about the Democrats and Republicans, it is about the future of our nation, if they can disregard the Constitution on this topic what is to stop them from crossing over that line on other issues like our rights to free speech, guns, or our property. I am appalled that they would be so indifferent to the will of the people; Congress is elected by the people to serve the people not to let their egos or bribes dictate their decisions. If nothing is done, our children, our grandchildren, and generations beyond will pay for this bill.
    When Obama campaigned he promised change, well folks it is coming. Ahead is a nation where the leaders disregard the very document that gives them their power. This is a slippery slope, a slope that leads to ignoring basic human rights, a slope that would lead to a nation that would remind our grandparents of the nations they once fought and died to prevent from spreading to our own country.