Arlene Specter Does Not Want Your Health Care Comments

I tried to E-mail Senator Specter with my opinions on the health care debate and found out he does not want them. This seemed strange because he was out front with his Town Halls, but after viewing his website I have decided that the Town Halls were more of a politically inspired defensive move than an honest interest in what his constituents are thinking.

When you use the contact section of his website you’re asked to specify the subject that you are referring to. There are seventeen different categories and when you select Health you’re asked for a subcategory: Medicare, Medicaid, Abortion, Nutrition and so on. There are selections for just about everything like Gun Control, Card Check, Amtrak, FEMA, Food Safety, Climate Change, Endangered Species, Cemeteries, HIV, Asbestos, Hunger and even a category on The Sudan. But if you have a comment on the Health Care debate or on a new legislative initiative, he doesn’t seem to be interested.

I’ve only been in Pennsylvania for five years so I’m not sure what qualities Specter had to become the state’s longest serving Senator. From what I’ve seen, in these five years, whatever positive qualities that first endeared him to the voters in Pennsylvania, are now gone.

DIH – Democrats In Hiding, Why This Is Hurting Real Health Care Reform

THE PEOPLE DON’T TRUST THE GOVERNMENT AND ARE EVEN MORE SUSPICIOUS WHEN THEY ATTEMPT TO RAM THEIR PROGRAMS THROUGH WITHOUT DISCUSSION.

The dems’ claim that the resistance to Health Care Reform is being orchestrated by private interests and fringe groups is untrue. As someone who does not belong or support any group or party, I resent that our elected officials are erecting blinders to a majority of their constituents concerns. It doesn’t matter which side you’re on, both Democrats and Republicans have concerns with this Bill and their representatives stonewalling blocks both the reasonable and the unreasonable. This tactic just detracts from any real discussion of the issues in the Health Care Bill.

There have been numerous attempts to create a system for universal health care in the U.S. and all have failed because the overhaul was too large and unwieldy. People are willing to let the politicians play at politics but this Bill is too much of a change. All we’re getting is promises that it will be revenue neutral and our taxes won’t increase, that our level of care will not be managed by cost control committees and that over-all, life-is-good and things will not change. And you wonder why people aren’t falling in line behind the Bill?

This Bill creates preferential treatment to certain groups such as unions, mandates intrusion into families that use the system and penalizes those that don’t. There are a thousand pages of new bureaucracy’s, new rules and regulations that are open ended and tons of unintended consequences. Most of us agree that health care needs reforms but this is just too big and too expensive to pass with no real and open discussion.

I am against government run health care but favor serious and well thought out programs of reform, most of the average Joe’s and Jane’s out there would also support intelligent reform. Here are a few issues to start with.

· Tort Reform – Just look at John Edwards, the main beneficiaries of medical malpractice suits are the attorneys.
· State Regulation – Eliminate the system of state boundaries, they reduce competition and drive up costs.
· Insurance Mandates - All physicians should have to accept all legitimate forms of insurance eliminating insurance directed and managed medical care.
· Portability – COBRA is a joke, if someone loses their job they cannot afford $1,000 a month or more for health insurance.
· Pre-existing conditions – Too many people pay into a system for twenty/thirty years and if anything should happen to that job they can lose coverage for serious and expensive conditions.
· Generic Drugs and Drug Pools – Twenty years is too long of a window and drug pricing could be reduced if pooling were allowed.
· Medical Training – Offer serious subsidies for people to enter the medical field. Do not lower standards allowing less qualified people in, but make it possible for lower income people with sufficient aptitude to enter.

Any one of these would be a massive undertaking but trying to do them all and more is just too much.