Public option choice needed in country

Dear Congressman Minnick

Thank you for your form letter in response to my concern about your position on the public option included in HB 3200.

Although you give a reasonable summary of the problems besetting our current health care system, you shrug off a “government-run insurance plan, which would reduce competition and limit choices for the American people.” That statement is either misinformed or intentionally misleading.

I am confident that you know how Americans receive health care now. The Wall Street standard for investing in a health insurance stock is that a company must pay out no more than eighty cents in claims for one dollar in premiums. Most insurance corporations actually pay out far less—65 to 70 cents. Twenty cents to thirty-five cents of each premium dollar goes to pay for advertising, claim denial, investor profit, and truly eye-popping CEO, executive, and board of director salaries.

Most states, including Idaho, suffer under a health insurance monopoly, meaning that no real competition now exists.

There is nothing in the Senate Finance Committee Bill, which you say you support, that will control costs and the skyrocketing premiums which will cost a family of four some $25,000 to $30,000 in only eight years. On the contrary, that bill and the other four mandate that insurance cannot be denied for pre-existing conditions, gender, age, or any other unique characteristic. You don’t really believe that the insurance industry will absorb this extra risk without raising premiums or accepting diminishing profits?

You have pointed out that about half of Americans now receive “government-run” health care through Medicare, Medicaid, VA, CHIP, and other programs. Where is the outcry from these 150 million beneficiaries to get loose from these programs? You have also stated that these programs deliver at least 95 cents on the dollar in benefits because they do not bear the costs outlined above.

If the American people are to be protected from the ruinous escalation of health care costs which everyone acknowledges, the health insurance industry will have to be reined in. As long as health care in this country is a vehicle for corporate profit rather than providing health care which everyone needs and deserves, our economy will eventually be crippled. This is an economic and a moral issue.

I supported you through the DCCC and voted for you. If you change your position and support a real health care bill with a strong public option, I will again support you in 2010. Although I am just a retired teacher on a fixed income and cannot compete with the insurance corporations, I will pledge at least $200 to help with your 2010 campaign. If you do not, your supporters may just as well let the Republicans regain your seat.

Thank you for inviting my views.

DAVID STARR

Sandpoint