Dear Obama,
I voted for you. i was among the millions who were thrilled that finally there would be change in our government. i like you. i was engaged in politics in a POSITIVE way for the first time in ten years. that enthusiasm is waning. I am beginning to see you may not be as gutsy as i hoped. you may not have the brawn to muscle through the challenges of a ruthless and destructive republican sabotage. I know its not easy and i feel for you, but we chose you to be our leader because we thought you had what it took to stand up to them. this week a decision will be made on your unprecedented health care reform bill. i know more than anything you want it to be passed as a way to boost your ratings and show what you have accomplished so far, but the fact that you would be willing to move forward without a public option has thrown my support of you into question.
The pubic option is the ONLY thing that will keep the insurance companies at bay and foster the REAL competition that will keep their service high and the cost low. Without it, making health Insurance mandatory is one of the biggest mistakes you will make in your career. How can you force us to take a crappy product from corrupt companies who have shown time and time again that they arent at ALL in the business of keeping and making people healthy? By not including a public option in this bill you are actually enslaving your country to this backwards and corrupt healthcare system.
If you fought for a public option, i would stand behind you. My love and hope for what you could bring to our country would soar and i would give you everything i had to make it happen. The people are not dumb. We know what you are doing. you need to get this bill passed regardless of its end quality because politically it will kill you for it to die. but please, myself and the thousands upon thousands of uninsured Americans are begging you with our very lives to take this risk, to shoot for the moon.
One day our country will get it right and when our children look back at your presidency, do you want them to say; He fought for REAL change and, though it wasn't easy and he didnt always win, he always stood for what was right. Or do you want them to say; he did whatever he could to stay in power, including standing behind a weakened bill that wont do much for our country. At this juncture it is seeming like the latter, and it is disheartening. i want you so much to be the change i can believe in...and you CAN be that RIGHT NOW. this week. please. take a stand for the public option, Obama, and watch the world celebrate behind you...
your humble constituent,
Cassidy Haley
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8 comments:
What I don't understand is why the US government doesn't look to countries that have excellent health care and use their models. (Canada, Britain, France for example) It's like the US is trying to reinvent the wheel. The propaganda ads regarding this are horrendous. Do the people really believe that private insurance companies have their best interests at heart? How can anyone believe that any for-profit business has any agenda other than, well, profit?
@redhairedwitch
I completely agree on the ideological level with you: this bill does not do what Obama promised to do and it does not do what the country needs. But the effort for actual reform has been so crippled by the elections--not because Republicans are the devil, but because this two-party system has set up our politics so that they are out for blood, not for what's best for America. It's hard for me to believe that they are letting their desire to see Obama fall on his face obstruct their efforts to build something constructive that will fix the obvious problems with healthcare, but that's the only conclusion I can draw from what's going on. So while it breaks my heart to see the country letting go of what could save the most dangerously broken industry in the nation, I'm also torn by a sense of realism that says that we have to get something through, even if it falls short of the full measure that we need. It's disappointing to give in to realism, though--it makes me wonder what opportunities were missed that allow idealism to fall under the wheels.
I would add onto this, but you said it all. So, amen. Hallelujah.
Oh, we do. We look with longing at those civilized countries who consider health care a right. What I don't know is how they got from where we are to where they are now. Were they ever plagued by insurance companies as we are? Did they ever have a for profit system, or were they governed from the start by wise leaders?
So much of what is wrong with this country I source to what I call the Puritan taint, that fetid breath of undead religious fundamentalism that has been here since the early settlements. Canada has largely escaped that, I think.
Janet, your comments are interesting. Unfortunately, I think they are misguided. The healthcare in Britain (National Health Service, NHS) is not excellent, not by a long shot. The heathcare is paid for by very high taxes - I can see the working folk in the US screaming right now! In addition, even though we pay incredible taxes to cover the cost of the NHS, the healthcare we are provided is sub-par. Britain's don't have access to cutting edge cancer treatments, the best doctors, or the best medical equipment and that's because it a state run affair with tons of bureaucracy. If you want this mess in the US, carry on!
THIS. Jeez.
Of course, we're the same country that chose to reinvent the wheel re airline safety after 9/11, when all we had to do was talk to our ally, Israel, who's NEVER had an incident of any kind on their planes or in their airports. And look what a WONDERFUL job we did! Oh, wait . . .
Also, I can personally vouch that getting through their security is hella faster and easier if you're not up to something sketchy. Their profilers actually know what they're doing.
But our government is SO beyond doing anything sensible at this point, it's not even funny. I think the system is broken, and I don't mean that in a "eff the man" kinda way. I think the current structure was created for a far less complex social, corporate and political environment than we now have, and every time something changes they just lay MORE bureacracy on top, rather than rethink each process as necessary, creating this barnacled rusting hulk where there used to be a plausible political system. I don't know where things are going to go, politics isn't really my forte . . . but I know a sick horse when I see one, and our system is showing serious signs of foundering.
I don't think we're going to go the French Revolution route . . . but I wouldn't be surprised at all if something breaks in the next 10-20 years.
To Anonymous: I understand what you are saying and I am assuming you are in Britain. Therefore, I am sure you also know that what is destroying the NHS is creeping commercialism, continual re-structuring and top heavy management.
And yet, Britain still has a longer life expectancy and lower infant mortality than the US. It's true that the US has some excellent specialists and health facilities. But, this care is not even available to over 47 million Americans.
The insurance companies cover so much less for so fewer people. This contributes to the fact that the US ranks #37 in the world for health care.
Even with all the problems, I would take Britain's care over the US. I am in Canada, and we have our share of problems, too. But, still, all that need care get it one way or another. A 92 year old may not get a hip replacement, but the 42 year old that needs one, will. And he won't be destitute after the surgery.
Ah, if only life were so simple.
Politicians, unfortunately, have one agenda, their future careers. Choosing what is the best thing for the public is not always in their best interest.
Our health care system is being destroyed from several angles, one of which is the legal system. I am originally from southern Illinois, home of one of the counties in our country that have juries who award unreal goldmines for idiotic medical lawsuits (and other lawsuits, for that matter). This particular county is in danger of having so many medical professionals relocate their practices to Missouri, or at least out of that county, that I had difficulty at one time locating a doctor for my parents.
Is our health care system in a mess? Absolutely, yes. But there are no easy answers, and we need to look at a numbe of different problems if we are really going to "fix" this mess.
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