Disgusted and disillusioned

[ramapo]

The news from Reid that health insurance reform is likely not happening this year is the last straw for me. Here's my letter to the leadership and my senators. I admit to whining, but I've had it.

President Obama, Senator Reid, Senator Menendez, Senator Lautenberg, Speaker Pelosi:

I have sent dozens of emails, letters, and faxes. I have contributed money. I have made
phone calls. I have hoped for real health insurance reform. But it is now distressingly clear that the needs of the people are secondary to the power and money of the lobbyists.

Speaker Pelosi promised a strong public option. It is now clear that there will be, at best,
a public option that is not open to 95% of the public. In other words, the public option is a
bad joke. It is likely that we wind up with no option at all.

The House has produced a bill that is numbing in its complexity. It is a gift to the
insurance lobby. The ban on pre-existing conditions doesn't go into effect until 2013. This
is completely unjustified. I could see a six-month period of adjustment for insurance
companies. Yet they are given three more years of cherry-picking.

This is very personal to me as my son is one of the millions of Americans denied insurance due
to medical history. Instead of providing him access to the same choices that most Americans
have, he will have to wait. His insurance runs out soon. Yet the games in Washington
continue. At best he'll get some kind of pool coverage with relatively high premiums. At worst, he has nothing.

It is now November. We are now hearing from Senator Reid that there may not be any
legislation this year. Just what is the point of having Democrats control both houses of
Congress if you cannot get anything done?

Each day that goes by makes the Republicans stronger and the Democrats weaker. We are treated
to the spectacle of Joe Lieberman and Olympia Snowe controlling the process and the message.
Why is Lieberman even part of the caucus? It is clear that he represents the insurance
industry over the citizens of his state.

I for one am completely disgusted with the Democrat leadership in both the House and Senate.
In addition, President Obama has not provided any clear leadership to move this process along.
Lately, he has been MIA on this subject.

Lyndon Johnson enacted Medicare and had the system up and running in something like one year.
Yet the House time line delays much of the implementation until 2013, time enough for what
little that does get enacted to be overturned depending on future election cycles. Total
implementation is not until something like 2018. This is beyond reason. Are we not more
capable than this?

Anger and disgust is too mild to describe how I feel. I suspect it will only get worse as the
Senate/House committee work out various compromises.

I worked hard for President Obama's election. I donated thousands of dollars. I've done what
I could to support insurance reform and continued to donate to the cause. But now I am done. The uninsured and under-insured are getting screwed. The lobbyists are getting rewarded. Unfortunately, health insurance reform is only one of the major problems facing us. That is more reason why this should've been done and signed into law so we could move on to even bigger challenges.

I doubt if this letter gets read. I doubt at this point that anybody in Congress really
cares.

I voted for Jon Corzine yesterday. He just might be the last Democrat I vote for for a long
time. At least Republicans had the guts to enact their agenda, bad as it was. Incredibly,
Democrats dither while those in need continue to wait for help.

I feel the fool for having believed that things would be different with significant majorities
in both the House and the Senate, that there would be real change. I guess you will
eventually pass some kind of weak reform, pat each other on the back and say what a great job
you did delivering for the American people. Don't think we are so stupid as to believe it.

You have lost me in the process. Too little, too late. At this point I wouldn't be shocked
to see Democrats just walk away from it all. You ought to be ashamed, but I don't think
politicians have the capacity to feel shame. And to think I gave my money to help elect
Democratic Senators and Representatives. What was the point?

Yesterday's elections should be a wake-up call that we are hurting. We need solutions and
action on the big problems facing us. We have seen little but tepid, timid leadership. I
hope it turns around in the upcoming months but I am done expecting that anything much
changes.

In closing, I reiterate my disgust and disappointment.

[earthside]

1. Insulting

Indeed, after months and months of this debate, the idea, the very idea, that health care insurance reform legislation might only be voted on NEXT year ... well, the mere notion is an insult to the American people.

Maybe if the big pay-off was going to be 'single-payer', I could understand the battle, but as the original post notes, we are going to be lucky if the proposed bills are not, in effect, just more protection and subsidies for the mega-corporate health insurance industry.

[Old Codger]

8. More than that

If it is put off til next year it will be, at best, delayed til after the midterm elections which means another year, if that happens kiss it goodbye, actually you can most likely kiss it goodbye now an save the wait.

[T Wolf]

2. Letters, even as sincere and expressive as this one, do no good. The ONLY thing that the

pols pay attention to is votes. And what produces those votes? In their mind, it is the corporate dollars. Therefore, they have no reason to even read your attempt to educate them.

ONLY if they lose their seat of power and influence will things change. And even then, they tend to move reich-ward rather than leftward to try and regain power.

Politicians are children. Do your children change their behavior because you tell them what will happen if they continue to misbehave? No. They only change once they are actually punished.

With the immature, greedy, self-important children in Congress (and the WH), a threat will achieve nothing. Only action (denying them your vote) will possibly get them to change. And that is not guaranteed.

[mike_c]

4. politicians don't give a rat's buttocks about our votes....

As long as the money keeps rolling in, the votes can be purchased easily enough. That's why campaigns cost millions of dollars, and why our leaders are completely and utterly beholden to corporations and the rich. That's why, once elected, most of them thumb their noses at the people who elected them-- we really don't count except as window dressing. It's time Americans understood this.

[Vincardog]

9. politicians don't give a rat's buttocks about our votes....as long as they are "counted" on BBV

[Echo In Light]

10. Exactly. And election theft is now a technological science, replete w/M$M to deny the obvious

[Wanet]

3. Well said

You speak for me also.

[Double T]

5. bitching and whining is OK, specially in light of where WE ARE NOT.......

and should be. Carry on, you're doing a great job. (NO sarcasm expressed or implied).

[Kablooie]

6. Don't hold your breath. Your best option may be to move to another country. ANY other country.

and you will have decent health care availble.

[inna]

7. KR. I share your sentiments. nt

[HughMoran]

11. It's especially annoying to me

I have open enrollment in Jan. If a bill gets signed before then, I can stay on Cobra (have company not offer me insurance) and wait until exchanges are set up. Since the rate is $40k/year, I'd save $1000's of dollars, now, not so much :(