Just Some Questions

Below are questions I have asked myself throughout the past week. Instead of writing what my answers to them would be I am interested in any answers you may have, or additional questions you have asked yourself.

For the week starting Monday August 17, 2009 here are some questions I have had:

Which Iron Chef would you pick to go against?

Y.E. Yang?

Did I miss elections that gave the Republicans the majority in both Houses of Congress in the past month?

What are you consciously ignoring right now?

Bagel: cream cheese or butter?

Kid #1 Question: Do you like dogs?

Is the California legislature really worth being the highest paid in the nation by almost 50%?

When profits for a company fall xyz% during a recession isn’t that still good news?

Are you early, on time or late?

Question of the week from a townhall from a very calm woman at an AARP meeting: “Why doesn’t the AARP insist that the government fix Medicare, fix Medicaid, fix social security before creating a whole new system based on processes that are proven failures?”

Martini: gin or vodka?

Do you consider yourself competitive?

How many of your neighbors do you know? Better yet, how many do you not know?

Lunch box or brown bag when you were a kid?

Does it matter if someone’s intentions were good if the result is a complete disaster?

At what stage of disrepair must our infrastructure, specifically roads, highways and bridges reach before spending on maintenance and replacement for infrastructure replaces spending on another new social program or expanding any existing programs?

Kid #2 Question: What was your favorite grade?

Who was the recipient of your first monetary contribution in politics? Did s/he win?

Who would you rather arrive late a firefighter, police officer or building inspector?

Stores have return policies and guaranteed satisfaction, what if our elected officials did and the return policy was as easy as Target’s?

Do you tithe to a religious institution or charity?

If blondes have more fun, do those who dye their hair blonde have more fun but most of it is not really fun?

Do you think any of our United States Senators have the “back-tat” if they are female or the wrap around the biceps tattoo for men? How long before someone which such “body art” is elected to the Senate?

For those reading in Southern California, have you enjoyed or not enjoyed our very cool August?

If crime levels are down to where they were during the Eisenhower Administration how come we don’t feel safe to let our kids just go play?

Did you parents go to and watch all your sports practices and games?

Cookies or Pie?

Please click the comments button below and share your answers to some questions!

(Anti-) Social Media And Your Kids

For those of us in the, let's call it the more mature generations, for those of us in the more mature generations the past couple of years has been one with a lot of learning about new technology. With the explosion of Facebook and Twitter almost every industry has had seminars and "experts" (how long does a new product or process need to be available before you can be an "expert?") coaching adults in their late thirties and older as to how to most effectively use the sites to improve their businesses.

Along with LinkedIn and My Space, Facebook and Twitter have been dubbed "Social Media" (while some use "social networking" I prefer media since to me social networking is a cocktail party). While Twitter has evolved to have mostly older users than Facebook or My Space, Linked In is almost strictly business networking and appears to be falling behind the more popular Facebook for the more mature generations. As for My Space, my understanding from browsing and inquiries is the site is not so popular with older folks like me and is more late teens and under 30s age brackets--I could be wrong but that is my impression.

While "friends" in the post college generations are welcomed when they come into the Facebook community with posts from friends "so great to see you on FB, you will love it!" the younger crowd assumes all their friends are already logged on and sharing their photos, music, videos and status. Like getting a cel phone and texting their BFF before they see if it can call home, teenagers assume anyone with a computer and Mom's permission will have a Facebook account. Key to that phrase is Mom's permission. There are no seminars at Obscure Former Educator Middle School teaching kids how to use Facebook to better their studies and become more productive and reach more prospects. Kids inantely know how the software works and quickly adapt to any changes. If you want proof, if you have any nieces, nephews, grandchildren, under 18 on Facebook take a look at their Wall and Profile compared to yours--they get it.

They get it because our children have grown up, or are growing up, with technology we had to learn how to use many years after college. I'm 47 and if you are my age or older you were over twenty when a company called Apple brought the Macintosh computer to market. Somewhere in your garage is a box with "Animal House" on Beta. You remeber when only doctors had car phones, hell you still call your mobile device a car phone half the time. Chances are the first portable cellular phone you saw was a "brick" with a battery that lasted two phone calls to the office or one call to your boyfriend or girlfriend. Many in our generation still do not know how to text on their mobile phone or burn a CD of their favorite music on their laptop.

Our kids, and I'm saying our kids are anyone in college or younger, intuitively know how to use all of this stuff. Have you seen a 14 year old girl working the buttons sending a text? First it is an entirely different language filled with abbreviations and acronyms, second the kids fingers remind one of a Western Union telegraph operator (for the younger readers call Grandpa to explain telegraph). They are constantly connected and communicating with their friends and social circle. While I do not have teenagers yet, my experience from those that do is it is normal for them to be working their Facebook pages, texting friends and taking calls all at the same time--multi-tasking social interaction. They never leave communication and if they do word spreads like wildfire, "OMG POS Out" because parent is over their shoulder and they have to sign off for a while.

Not only are they texting and posting on each others social media pages, but they are now using Skype or other software for live tele-conferencing with friends--they can never leave each others site. BFF, Best Friends Forever.

When I left high school for college I knew I would never see most of my classmates again. I was in a pretty unique situation since my high school was in Brussels, Belgium and almost all of my classmates who were returning to the States for college were going to be on the East Coast and I would be on the West Coast. But we also knew that our high school was not like most of our peers experience, going "home" meant something different for us than our new classmates at college. There was letter writing to stay in touch and eventually, at least for me, that fell by the wayside for most of my high school friends as our lives changed and we became more ingrained in life at our colleges, then new jobs and careers. While my high school experience was unique for my generation, my college experience was not that much different when it came to socializing and new relationships. Some of my classmates would frequently go home if they lived locally, or maintained the high school romance at first, a few lasted past Christmas break of freshman year, but those visits and relationships tended to diminish over time. They diminished because the communication and interaction was focussed within the college campus and the friends and relationships that created new and shared experiences that were not transported back to high school relationships.

It is harder to maintain a relationship with a monthly or quarterly letter, with a brief visit over busy holiday or summer schedules, when new relationships are developing with peers who are in the same position of being fairly shut off from communication with previous relationships and forced by proximity and length of time to forge new ones. Through the process we matured, mostly, wandered through the awkwardness of transition from teenager to adult, and prepared for careers and possibly families with support, encouragement and advice from others sharing our experience.

Many of those reading this will be remembering their college and young adult years and relate to what I am addressing, we cast off many of our old relationships and roles within our high school social groups and grew into our new selves and roles. We did this because it took effort to communicate with our prior social groups and friends, and at some point the cost-benefit analysis of the effort versus the reward caused the effort not to be worth it.

Today the entire social fabric of college life has changed due to the technology available to the students. A young woman of eighteen leaving home and travelling to college 1,000 miles away is in no less contact with her high school social circle than she is when sitting at home on Wednesday night. She can text. She can post on Facebook. She can email. She can take a picture or video with her phone and send it instantly sharing her experience. She can log onto Skype and see and hear her BFF. Or her boyfriend. She stays connected to her comfort zone and social circle where her role is defined and without missing a beat her relationships do not change.

Multiply this by one thousand and all the freshmen women on her campus are engaged in the same behavior. Any new experience is not unique but instantly shared with high school friends in Denver, Miami, Omaha or Los Angeles. If something is wrong or support is needed instead of crying on a roommates shoulder and open up to someone new, pick up your mobile phone and start texting those who know you best. Every student is already in several relationships that they carry with them in their pocket or on their waist--where do the new relationships fit in?

A few parents with kids going away for college are concerned about their kids shutting down their instant communication enough to live their own experience at college and forge their new relationships that will carry them through the rest of their lives. Concerned that the roles their kids have been assigned in high school will follow them to college, be the role positive or not, and hinder their ability to grow into their true selves and mature based on their own decisions and actions not filtered by a peer group created when they were thirteen or fourteen. Concerned that going away to college and the independence that teaches is diminished by dragging the social network to school with them.

How easy is it to blow off the guy from Sociology of Tazmanian Monkeys who wants to take you to pizza on Wednesday night if you are still spending a few hours each day/night on Skype with your high school boyfriend? How easy is it to ignore the proximity of the girls in your room cramming for a macroeconomic class when you have your cell phone and Lauren who is at BC is in a tizzy because James her high school beau has had the same girl in the last five pics he sent yesterday and today? How easy it is to go through four years of college 1,000 miles away and never leave home?

Social media is new to the adults. Many of us are using Facebook like an interactive high school year book, many of us have reconnected with old friends from high school--who was supposed to send the last letter and did not that stopped our relationship and communication? We are joining the social media sites and communication techniques late in life with strong and established relationships in our home, our neighborhood, our work, our church, our community, relationships formed and forged as adults.

Our younger generations are not using the social media as much to form new relationships but to stay connected to their "old" relationships--old being the four years of high school. Is this healthy for the social development of the generation? Will the current generations that grow up with the instant communication technology have gaps in socialization and communication that previous generations learned through the independence of maturing away from home and the comfort of high school? How will this affect their abilities to lead? Solve problems? Manage departments or companies?

UPDATE: I saw this cartoon from Mike Smith (no relation, though my brother's name is Mike Smith) in the Press-Telegram this morning after writing this post--very appropriate for the subject.

.

Health Care Reform Questions That Linger

Questions continue in the health care debate across the country. While every weekend I ask "Just Some Questions" for readers, here are some questions on unresolved issues that face Congress when it reconvenes in September.

The 111th Congress reconvenes in a few weeks, gathering its members from across the country as they return to Washington from visiting their Districts and their constituents. This summer has been different than any summer in recent memory as traditional summer townhall meetings and meet and greets staged by members of both the House and Senate have been the focal point of the health care reform debate. At the center is HR 3200, a proposed bill that runs 1,017 pages as currently offered by the government printing office. Typical summer vacation meet and greets and townhall meetings with members of Congress attract thirty or forty people at most, this summer's meetings have seen overflow crowds and Americans speaking directly to their elected representatives for the first time in generations. With almost 24/7 coverage of the health care reform debate, okay argument, in this country, there are many questions and issues that I feel Congress must address when its summer hiatus is over.

Former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin created a mini-storm within the storm when she wrote on her Facebook page about "death panels" staffed by government officials who would determine which citizens would be approved to receive which treatments. Mocked, scorned and scoffed at by many, Palin stood her ground and wrote a follow up post on her Facebook page that provided more details and connecting of the dots from HR 3200 that outlined coverage by government insurance of family doctors having end of life consultations with patients, and ability to introduce no extreme measures authorizations among other issues that could be discussed. President Obama reacted by saying, "we won't be pulling the plug on Grandma." Palin and others countered that the intent and attitude of HR 3200 is to use cost-benefit analysis in determining what care can be administered; between cost-benefit analysis of keeping Grandma alive and her consultation with her doctor whom she trusts she may pull the plug on herself. When looked at rationally the argument makes sense. So much sense that members of the Senate Finance Committee have already stated they are pulling any end-of-life consultations out of any bill before them, "it's too confusing" said one member.

Against this background with the House change, modify or delete the end-of-life language in its current version?

With its new name, or new to me, Pharma, Pharmaceutical companies have long been the bad guy in any health care discussion. The number one argument made about Pharma is the huge profits they make and the incredibly expensive costs of their products--particularly products that are mostly consumed by senior citizens on fixed retirement incomes. Not presented in any of those arguments are how Research and Development costs impact those profits. As outlined in a Congressional Budget Office report Pharma's R&D costs and the number of drugs approved for market have a big impact on their profit numbers. "Adjusted for the value of its R&D assets, the drug industry's actual profitability still appears to be somewhat higher than the average for all U.S. industries, but not two to three times higher, as standard measures of profitability indicate." Pharma pays taxes on its profits and then puts money into the approximately $800 million per drug in R&D for new products. Obviously drug companies make money, otherwise they would not be in business. As obviously the profits they make that allow them to stay in business is beneficial not only for the American public but is a global benefit as Pharma has developed drugs that cure cancer, prevent pregnancies, prevent major illnesses like polio, cure our hangovers and allow better performance in certain parts of our lives. With the long and protracted process of getting a drug from laboratory to pharmacy shelf the overall cost of drug development climbs every year. For many years Pharma has been one of the go to whipping dogs of the Democrats when they jumped on the health care soap box. A few weeks ago it was leaked that the White House made a deal with Pharma without bringing in any members of Congress--yes a secret, backroom deal from the Obama Administration with the Pharma lobbyists. In exchange for $150 million in support for advertising and public relations for the Democrats health care reform, the reform would include caps on drug costs that Pharma could accept to maintain their profitability.

How will the majority in Congress deal with the deal made between the President and Pharma? Will they compromise their desire to cap drug costs at a higher level and respect the President's deal and $150 million cost for the deal to Pharma?

Currently hospitals must treat all who enter their facilities for service. The financial problems often begin after treatment has started or ended. In California if a patient comes into a hospital that is not contracted with MediCal, once the patient is stable for transport the hospital must contact hospitals in the region to see if any have beds available to accept the patient. For both MediCal/Medicaid and Medicare, once a patient leaves a hospital a bill is presented to the appropriate government bureaucracy for payment. The bureaucracy then replies back, often at a much reduced payment and multiple denials of coverage for days in the hospital, treatment, etc. After the patient has been stabilized and sent home or to another hospital, in other words once the sick patient is cured, the government entity responsible for payment denies payment to the hospital for some of the treatment provided. This post-treatment denial of coverage, decisions made by government employees without medical degrees or training, costs hospitals, doctors, laboratories, technicians, billions of dollars every year.

In HR 3200 is a lot of language about cost-benefit decisions on care. Currently those decisions are being made by government health insurance programs after care has been provided and costing our health care system billions of dollars. Expanding this process to even more patients across the country will lead to even more treatment of patients with even less payment. How will you balance the cost-benefit treatment analysis with keeping hospitals open?

HR 3200 is over 1,000 pages in length. It is incredibly detailed and complicated. This has been one of the biggest arguments against HR 3200, because of its length and complexity almost no one who reads it can understand all of it. Of all I have read and seen, the public's questions of their Representatives, the one most often repeated is, "How can you vote for something you do not understand?"

Will members of the House and Senate work to simplify HR 3200 so that most Americans, let's even say most Americans with a college degree, can read and understand the bill? Will members of Congress read the final bill before voting to pass it?

One of the biggest arguments in favor of health care reform is health insurance companies denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions. This pre-existing condition denial happens most often when an individual or family moves from one insurance company to another, which happens most often when the primary beneficiary changes employment. With the average American being much more mobile in employment between companies over his/her career than in the past, with the growing number of self-employed or independent contractors in American, more and more Americans every year are in a position where they do not qualify for a company based insurance program, or must go through the expensive COBRA option. Our health care system has evolved, through government encouragement and directive, so that employers have become responsible for the health insurance of their workers and their families. This costs employers, including public entities, billions of dollars every year in costs and at the same time limits the insurance choices now and in the future of its workers--many Americans stay in jobs they hate because of the insurance coverage for their family, especially if they have a child with a specific condition that would prevent them from getting insured from a new company should they change employers.

Will Congress create a plan that would make it more beneficial for Americans to purchase and maintain their health insurance coverage as individuals instead of their having to purchase their insurance through their employers--or the government? Will Congress changes the rules so that insurance companies can offer coverage across state lines without being subject to multiple state rules and allow a family to stay with the same carrier through many jobs, many moves and changes in their conditions?

Many have used the argument for the end of July push to get HR 3200 passed in a couple of weeks that, "we have had over 40 years to fix this, hasn't it been enough time." Or, "the Republicans had eight years to fix the health care system and didn't do it." Well yes, the Republicans had the White House for 8 years under George W. Bush and there was no health care reform, and before that the Democrats had the White House under Bill Clinton with no health care reform, and before that the Republicans had the White House for 12 years between George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, and....during this time the Congress was at various times controlled by one party or the other. Just because several Administrations and Congresses have not addressed health care reform seems to be a reason for pushing through lengthy and complex legislation that has been read nor understood by almost no members of Congress, unless you just want reform of any kind without concern as to the consequences of the reform.

Will Congress take a measured approach to health care reform and divide the reform into manageable segments with the agreement of both parties? Will Congress enable thoughtful discussion and debate on a piece by piece basis addressing the current private and public insurance options, reimbursement of health care providers giving care to uninsured, ability to continue insurance with the same carrier and doctors throughout ones career/life, simplifying billing an reimbursement processes, government involvement in health care delivery and approvals?

Finally, can members of Congress, particularly those in leadership positions, quit with the divisive politics and name calling? Can members of Congress accept that most Americans consider government involvement in their health care to be somewhat scary, very unknown as to what it will mean to their future and the future of their families and very personal and as such they do not want political rhetoric, name calling and dismissive remarks and behavior? Can members of Congress do what they have been selected by the American people to do, which is to lead with the consent of their constituents?

Most Americans want our current health care system to undergo some changes and reform, our disagreements are over how those come about and what the total reform needs to be. Can members of Congress understand they can achieve national unity with a clear stated final objectives and then work together for common ground on how to achieve those objectives?

In about fifteen months every member of the House of Representatives and about one-third of the members of the Senate are facing re-election. How these members of Congress perform in the coming months on the health care reform issue will matter greatly in November 2010, for there has not been an issue in the past few decades that has gained the attention of so many Americans with disparate views. Not wars, not economies, not political scandal. Not since the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s have so many Americans who are usually silent raised their voices on an issue. Do members of Congress hear those voices? Are they all listening?

.

Just Some Questions

Below are questions I have asked myself throughout the past week. Instead of writing what my answers to them would be I am interested in any answers you may have, or additional questions you have asked yourself.

For the week starting Monday August 10, 2009 here are some questions I have had:

What is the difference between salsa and relish?

Can you brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand?

If the push to have everyone ride their bike to work in Long Beach proves real successful, how much money will the city lose in parking revenue?

Why do people drive down alleys at any speed over 5 mph?

Mac or PC?

Stimulus bill, Cash For Clunkers, North Korea, Government ownership of automakers, HR3200 (Health Care Reform), would you still vote the way you did in November for the top of the ticket? What about votes further down the ticket for Congress and state offices?

Banana bread or zucchini bread?

I will not ask any questions about Bill Clinton, I don’t need that kind of a shout down.

Anyone offering apologies for lambasting the National Inquirer “a supermarket tabloid” for the John Edwards reporting it did?

Kid #1 Question: Where did you go to elementary school?

With the uproar over White House spying on legal wiretaps, why the silence of White House using cookies to track internet use and collecting emails of opponents of ObamaCare?

Would you hire someone to cold call for your company or product who cannot be understood on the phone?

Was Michael Vick a victim of racism?

What is printed on your favorite t-shirt?

Does anyone in sports, not an athlete, have a better job than Steve Williams?

Did you pick up some trash in a public place that was not yours this week?

Kid #2 Question: Do you like to chew ice?

When all is said and done will Eunice Shriver have left a bigger legacy and longer lasting impact on America and the world than any of her brothers?

What is your favorite sport to participate in? To view in person? To view on television?

If you could win election to any political office which would it be?

One dish, who cooks it and what is it?

Cookies or Pie?

Dear President Obama

Dear President Obama,

I have never written a President before; I might have written President Nixon in Mrs. Tacker’s First Grade class at Paul Revere Elementary in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1968 but if so I do not remember. I have chosen this time of my life as a 47 year old man to write you due to a request on the White House website,“If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.” Rather than have someone else go through the hassle of forwarding my opinions and postings to you, I thought I would do the stand up thing and send it myself. In the interest of full disclosure this letter is also posted on my blog at www.DCsMusings.blogspot.com and will also be linked to my Facebook page and emailed to others including some members of the media. Since one of your campaign positions was transparency I thought you would be okay with my making this communication public and transparent.

As I stated, I am 47, married and have two children in elementary school, for more than twenty years I have been a mortgage broker, for the past ten have been partners in a successful brokerage that has helped thousands of Americans purchase homes—very few of whom have faced foreclosures due to our diligence in matching finances to prices. I am a college graduate from a small liberal arts college with a degree in Economics and Political Studies. Very active in my community, I have served on the boards and in leadership positions for several non-profit organizations; most recently serving the past two years as Chair of the Board of Community Hospital of Long Beach. There are a million or more Americans like me across this great land, parents, small business owners, active in their communities, while this communication is from me perhaps it speaks for many of them as well.

Now to the heart of the matter: Health Care Reform (HR3200). In my role as parent, business owner, patient and board member of a non-profit community hospital I have seen our health care industry from practically every angle except that of practitioner—unless removing a splinter from the tiny finger of a crying daughter qualifies. I have paid the co-pays, have settled the disputes between doctor’s office billing and insurance coverage, I have negotiated payment of health benefits for employees, I have waited anxiously for test results and I have poured over financials of a hospital where many months up to half the visitors to its Emergency Room are classified as “self-pay” which in the hospital business usually means “no-pay.”

From these experiences I am very aware that some reform is necessary as there are billions of dollars wasted in our current health care system and the waste impacts the two most important parties in the transaction: the patient and the provider. Between my insurance premiums, co-pays, taxes for MediCal and Medicare for my self, plus premiums and taxes paid by our company, I am paying thousands and thousands of dollars every year into health care, and most of what I am paying goes to administrators, bureaucrats and other premiums to cover the malpractice insurance the providers must carry.

I know from the provider side billions are spent on bureaucratic minefields whenever they wish to add a washroom, create a new program, or remodel a hospital room. In California state law will force the closure of many hospitals who do not have the hundreds of millions of dollars, each, to retrofit their buildings to the codes set by politicians. In California state law creates millions of dollars per year for every hospital to constantly maintain minimum nurse staffing levels set by politicians with heavy influence from groups like your friends at Service Employees International. I know that payments from MediCal are uneven throughout the state and that Medicare is cutting payments for services provided. And I know that hospitals must treat every person who walks through the door, whether insured or not, whether a citizen or not, if they need medical assistance from removing lice to cardiac arrest they are treated, by moral law and government statute, and often receive no reimbursement for the care.

Central to HR3200 is the “public option” insurance that will be the blanket coverage for all Americans without insurance. The number that is used appears to be 48 million uninsured Americans who will be covered by this private option. Currently over 45 million Americans are enrolled in Medicare, it costs us $425 billion per year and accounts for sixteen cents of every dollar spent by our Federal government. As you have stated, it is inefficient. It is estimated that 10% of the program is lost to fraud and theft. Under HR3200 the number of Medicare patients, would essentially double, and the cost of HR3200 is $1.6 trillion. If the current system of federal insurance does not work well why are people so eager to add more individuals to the system? Medicare is paid for by working Americans and mostly covers Americans who are not working. Under HR3200 the uninsured, whether working or not, will be covered and the cost will be paid for once again by working Americans. How will my taxes not go up if I am already paying a Medicare tax that is still not enough to cover 45 million Americans health care needs and the intention is to add another 45 million to be covered?

In your press conference last month you said that a doctor treating a child for a sore throat would prescribe that the child’s tonsils be taken out just to make more money. Despite the fact that the child’s pediatrician would not make more money since another doctor would perform the tonsillectomy, have you considered that the doctor may be prescribing the treatment to avoid a lawsuit later on? What if the doctor did not prescribe the tonsillectomy and the tonsillitis worsened and became a worse condition? Almost 30% of babies delivered in the United States are done so by caesarian section, the main reason the percentage is so high is to avoid possible lawsuits for malpractice; former Presidential candidate John Edwards made his fortune on C-Section lawsuits and settlements—an indication of not only a major problem in our current healthcare system but also the incestuous relationship between trial lawyers and members of the Democratic Party.

Our health care system needs to be reformed. HR3200 does not reform our health care system it creates a new health care system. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others have attacked and slandered Americans who are questioning and opposing HR3200, but have admittedly not read the legislation. Mr. President you are on the campaign trail urging Americans to support HR3200 but I, and many others, are skeptical that you have read the entire bill. How can our elected leaders ask us to support something they have not read?

Rather than asking us to support a brand new health care system that costs trillions and trillions of dollars, rather than asking us to support a new health care system that will change how our children and grandchildren, how our parents and grandparents, will be treated, rather than asking us to support a new health care system that will create enormous debt for our children and grandchildren, why not work within the existing framework of our health care system to preserve what works and fix was does not?

My health care insurance works great. It is costly, but that is mainly due to the costs created throughout the entire system. Work on those costs and create more competition, not from the government, and my premiums will come down.

Any health care reform that does not include tort reform is useless in lowering costs for the medical community and therefore for patients and insurance companies. Instead of creating a new health care system, create tort reform that protects patients but as importantly is not punitive to good doctors who treat us with care and concern.

Any health care reform that does not create an environment that allows insurance companies to compete for my premiums is useless in lowering costs for health insurance. Currently my most competitive option for insuring my family is through my company. My company selects, once a year, from a few options for a company to cover everyone in the company. Our premiums are set by the condition of the least healthy amongst us. As well we are only able to obtain quotes from companies in California. Remove the borders for insurance companies and let them compete for business in Long Beach, California, Tulsa, Oklahoma and Albany, New York. Competition creates lower prices and more efficient delivery of services—consumers can choose between cost and service and often end up with both.

Create an environment where employers are not responsible for insuring workers and their families. It limits the options for families and ties them to their employers for benefits not for the quality of their job or work environment. It would eliminate COBRA costs which drive up health care costs. With more individuals seeking insurance, companies can reward healthy families and drive costs down.

Yes I am against HR3200. I have not read all 1000 pages which may make me a hypocrite for deriding those in Washington who have not read it, but I am not obligated to since I am not voting on it. What I have read however does not make sense. It does not seem to solve our heath care system’s problems but rather seems to add more problems in the future. As can been seen by the reaction of Americans across the country, most of us like our doctors, like our insurance companies and like our health care system. We know we have the best health care in the world, with the best doctors, the best hospitals and the best nurses. However since approximately 10% of Americans are not covered by insurance, not by choice, your Administration and some Democrats in Washington want to tear down our current system and create a new health care system.

Yes, this worries some of us. Yes, this scares some of us. Yes, we are concerned for the type of care we will receive, our children will receive and our grandchildren will receive. These are legitimate concerns and the reaction from you and others only increases our concerns. It is difficult to trust leaders who tell us to “get out of the way” say we are “carrying swastikas to meetings” and tell us to “stop talking.” It makes us wonder what are they trying to hide, what do they not want us to know?

Your employee asked for any letters or emails that seem “fishy.” I do not know if this qualifies, but I am sending it anyway because I think HR3200 is fishy. I think there is so much hidden in 1000 pages of legislation that no one has read but are pushing onto us that there is reason for concern and opposition. I think the trust you gained from the majority of Americans in November 2008 is evaporating the more you insist we stop talking and support radical changes that will affect how we will live our lives in good health or bad.

Please stop trying to create a new health care system and instead look at what simple but minor changes can be made to our existing system to enable continued quality care to be provided to over 300 million Americans every year.

Sincerely,
Dennis C Smith
Long Beach, CA