Letter to the house

Below is the letter that I sent to Rep in Washington about the health care bill. Please copy the letter and use it as a template for letters to your Reps! They will be home for summer break and we need to let them know how we feel.

Rep. Titus;

I am writing to you as a business owner and a constituent that has questions regarding the Health Care Bill (HR 3200). After reading the bill, I have several concerns and questions regarding it and hope you can answer my questions. I do not pretend to understand the entire bill and ask if you can help me understand a little better. Besides being very vague, one concern I have is about enrollment. It appears that you can keep your existing program and add dependents, but no private insurance company can enroll new members. So, as a business owner if I want to change providers, I would have to change to the public option? Additionally, in the construction field, I provide partial insurance to my employees and they pay the balance. I would now have to pay an additional 8% in taxes per employee in addition to the amount I already pay because, according to the bill, I can not get rid of the insurance I provide in favor of the public option. Another item of concern is the tax on insurance policies. Every insurance policy written, except the public option, would be taxed as well. Wouldn't that drive the cost of private insurance even higher and as a business I can not drop the insurance and move everyone into the public option.

The program is administered by a commission, where almost 2/3 of the commission is appointed by the President. The commission has control over everything and being part of the executive branch, would report directly to the President. Having such a small group in Washington D.C. dictating all the details of the health care program, when the bill has no details is a very scary thought.

The funding of the bill seems very obscure, if not hidden. Most references to funding just say "funds appropriated to the Treasury". It appears that the tax on the wealthy, tax on insurance policies, tax on business and taxes on individuals who do not have coverage are the main areas to raise money to pay for the bill, along with the co-payments from public option insured. Do you think that is enough money to cover the actual costs?

The bill also covered, what appears to be, the repayment of healthcare professionals loans and financing medical schools and recruiting more doctors and nurses. It would appear to me that that money would be better spent in providing medical care.

With the problems facing Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Welfare and Veterans Affairs would it not be better to focus on eliminating waste and fraud in those systems before rushing into something that has not been thought through? If approximately 70% of Americans are content with their medical insurance, why the rush to overhaul the entire system? Should we not take the time to fix the areas in need before jumping in with both feet?

I took the time to read the entire 1018 page bill because of the possible consequences to my business. I hope you have taken the time to read it as well.

Your Constituent,




Randy Neal
American.