Do You Believe? Part I

by: KayStreet

Sat Aug 22, 2009 at 15:41:58 PM EDT

Dear Sen. Snowe, Sen. Collins, and Rep. Michaud:

I'd like to talk to you, once again about health care reform. I have decided to include each of you in all my future correspondence, and I would welcome any reply that each of you care to make.

At this time, I'd like to ask a  very specific question: Do you believe health care to be a fundamental right of all Americans?  

"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Or is sickness just another market to be exploited for profit?

Do you believe that Medicare, while not perfect, is a system that works? Do you believe in expanding this working system -- a Medicare for America -- to benefit all Americans?

Or will you struggle to save a failed system?

Do you believe that insurance companies taxing us 30 cents of every dollar we spend on health care is a broken system?

Or is this simply what the "market" will bear?

Do you believe that the insurance companies using this 30% tax to exclude the sick, to deny benefits, and to drop loyal customers that are "too expensive" for the bottom line, are symptoms of a broken system?

Or is this necessary workings of a free market?

Do you believe that all Americans have a right to see a doctor of their choice in a timely manner?

Or do you believe that the poor, the uninsured, and under-insured should have to wait until their child's simple cough and mild fever turns life threatening, only to go to a hospital for a desperate and worry-filled 5 hour wait in a crowded emergency room?

Do you believe that a doctor is best qualified to determine the length of a new mother's hospital stay?

Or should a 30% surcharge paid, bean counting, insurance company bureaucrat decide when to kick that women to the curb?

Do you believe a doctor is the best judge of what course of treatment is a woman's best chance to survive a fight with breast cancer?

Or should  that 30% surcharge paid bean counter be able to deny treatment because it's "not covered" or "experimental?"

Do you believe that Americans should be able to have complete and continued access to their doctors, and all the care they need for a catastrophic illness?

Or should that 30% surcharge paid bean counter be able to say, "Sorry,  but according to our records, you've been sick enough for this lifetime, no more health care for you."

Please, let us know what you believe.