Letter to Congressman Baca: Vote No on HR 3200

Congressman Baca,

I think that the current healthcare bill (HR 3200) attempts to solve the problems of uninsured and under-insured by forcing people who can't afford insurance to buy it. Certainly, insurance companies are in favor of it, since the forced patronage that will result from its passage will raise their revenues.

Imagine, Congressman Baca, families having to choose between feeding their children and paying for healthcare, which they might not need. The choice for those of us who have been faced with it, is academic: we take care of our kids, not the lavish bank accounts of hospitals, doctors and insurance companies. Now, imagine if the police came to the home of a struggling family to shake them down for insurance money. It sounds like quite a racket. And it doesn't solve the problem. If anything, it creates new ones. Do parents who can't afford insurance go to jail? Debtor's prison? What happens to their kids? Who insures them (since inmates tend not to have incomes). That would be the state. Do any of the 1000 pages of this bill address any of these issues?

It's terrible that so many people are without health coverage, but HR 3200 would be a cure worse than the disease. Barring a solution that will improve things (other than profit projections for the medical-industrial complex), it's better to leave things as they are.

I find it disturbing that the proposed HR 676 has been summarily dismissed by the bulk of the legislature. I don't know if it would be an improvement over what we currently have, but without a public debate bringing the pros and cons to the fore, how can your constituents decide?

What's the rush? Why is congress trying to push this bill through so fast? After 9-11 I would think that lawmakers would be wary of pushing new legislation through without vigorous debate.

While I think that affordable health coverage would be helpful to most people, I also think that any proposed bill should have one--and ONLY one--agenda: giving people a choice they can afford, not imposing on them and their children a burdensome expense.

Vote no on HR 3200. Facilitate debate on HR 676.

Yours,

Jack