this is a real letter just received from Senator Inhofe regarding health care from a friend of ours.... I did not know if she wished her name to be used... but here is the note.
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Dear Mrs. Han***:
Thank you for contacting me with your thoughts on health care reform. As your voice in Washington, I appreciate being made aware of your thoughts and concerns.
I am dedicated to providing quality health care for my fellow Oklahomans and all Americans and desire to see everyone receive the best possible health care with the most choices. Yes, there is a health care crisis that needs to be addressed, but a greater crisis is having a Washington bureaucrat get between you and your doctor, denying you the medical care you need. Therefore, I am committed to a balanced, common sense approach to health care that provides assistance to those who truly need it and keeps healthcare patient-centered rather than government-centered.
Like you, I believe the Federal government has no place in our personal health care decisions, choices, and treatments. Even with our increasing health care costs and concern for the uninsured, we still have the best health care system in the world, and I do not want to jeopardize the quality of care that already exists in our country. Socialized, government-run health care, touted by many as the only solution, is not the answer. This is made evident by the state of health care in other nations that use this model, like Canada or Great Britain.
There are many examples that show the failure of this type of system. Of the numerous articles, let me provide examples of a few. The Wall Street Journal featured a story earlier this year of a Canadian citizen, Bill Murray who waited in pain for more than a year to see a specialist for his arthritic hip. The specialist recommended a state-of-the-art procedure, but government bureaucrats determined that Mr. Murray, who was 57, was "too old". In the end, he was also denied the opportunity to pay for the procedure himself. The Mayo Clinic' website features the story of Shona Holmes whose Canadian family doctor discovered a tumor in her brain. Ms. Holmes knew she could not wait the six months it would take for her to get an appointment with a specialist. Instead, she was able to call the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, and got an appointment that the same day. The British newspaper, The Press reported that a British citizen, Ian Dobbin, was informed by the British National Health Service that since it would not pay for his life-saving cancer treatment, he needed to pay ?25,000 (over $40,000) to obtain the treatment in order to survive. He was quoted in the article saying, "I've been paying my national insurance all my life and when it comes to the point that I need it to keep me alive, they are not prepared to help."
These stories and many others illustrate some of the problems that can rise when the government gets involved in health care. Furthermore, statistics show that the United States already has a superior and more effective health system. According to recent publications, the mortality rate in Canada is 25% higher for breast cancer, 18% higher for prostate cancer, and 13% higher for colorectal cancer than in the U.S. Additionally, studies show that only 5% of Americans wait more than 4 months for surgery, compared with 23% of Australians, 26% of New Zealanders, 27% of Canadians, and 36% of British citizens. In fact, nearly 1.8 million people in Great Britain are waiting for hospital or outpatient treatments at any given time. Even more telling, a Canadian doctor now practicing in the United States reported in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons that the average wait time to see a specialist in Canada is 17 weeks. If we give the Federal government more control over health care, I am very concerned that Oklahomans and all Americans will quickly feel the effects of the rationing of health care.
Supporters of a "public plan" or government-run health insurance option claim that a public plan will bring competition to the health insurance market and lower prices. However, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has made it clear that introducing a government-run health plan into the market would have minimal impact on cost reduction. In fact, CBO Director Doug Elmendorf testified to the Senate Budget Committee that "in the legislation that has been reported [they] do not see the sort of fundamental changes that would be necessary to reduce the trajectory of federal health spending by a significant amount. And on the contrary, the legislation significantly expands the federal responsibility for health care costs". I am concerned that a "public plan" option will run private insurance out of business leaving us, as consumers, without choices and options. An estimated 15 million could lose their current health insurance offered by their employer if current proposals are enacted. As an American citizen, I do not want bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. deciding which doctors I am allowed to see or which treatments are available to me.
President Obama has promised the American people on numerous occasions that if you like your current health insurance, you can keep it. However, CBO estimates and has testified that several million Americans will lose the health care coverage currently offered by their employer if the Kennedy/Dodd bill were to become law. Again, we see that this comprehensive health care proposal is leading us down a path that takes choice away from individuals.
As an alternative, I am a cosponsor of S. 1099, the Patients' Choice Act. This bill strengthens relationships between patients and physicians by using choice and competition rather than rationing and restrictions to contain costs while ensuring that affordable health care is available for all Americans without interference from the Federal government. While promoting healthier lifestyles and disease prevention through incentives for States, S. 1099 also provides a refundable tax credit of $2,300 per individual or $5,700 per family for the purchase of health insurance. To enable individuals to choose a health insurance plan that best meets their needs, the bill creates State Health Insurance Exchanges allowing Americans to compare different health plans and makes Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) more accessible and easy to use.
Thank you again for contacting me. As Senators, we are here to represent the interests of our constituents, not Washington, D.C. As the healthcare debate further develops and more proposals are introduced, I will work to develop and enact legislation that ensures affordable health care is available to all in a fiscally responsible manner with the most choices available
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