Roanoke Tea Party

The following is a contribution from Donald Koop, in the form of an open letter to Senators Warner and Webb.

Re.: Senate bills on health care reform and climate control

While this letter is uniquely mine, I’m sure that it shares the thoughts of thousands of Virginians who cannot, or choose not to, partake in the kind of privilege I am enjoying today.

I’d like to at least begin on a positive note by thanking you for your vote to defeat the recent attempt to relocate a large sum of money from a proposed health reform bill to this nation’s deficit in order to reduce the apparent real cost of the bill.  I appreciate your support.

Now, however, we come to the collection of health reform bills, some in the House and some in the Senate, as well as the House-passed Cap and Trade (aka “cap and tax”) bill where your votes will be made.  I hope that you can help to bring decorum back to the Senate from the current situation that appears to me like a disparate group flapping about in quicksand in a futile effort to come up with “something” that will pass.

As my representative to the Senate, and not the other way around, I expect you to do certain things and not to do other things.  It is therefore important for you to know my wishes, as follows:

Do:

• READ THE COMPLETE BILL BEFORE VOTING ON IT!
• Assure that a plain English version of the final Senate version of any crucial bill is readable online at least 72 hours in advance of voting on the bill.
• Cast your cloture vote as if it were your final vote on the bill’s contents at the time of the cloture vote.  Some are planning to vote “Aye” on cloture but “Nay” at the end, having the effect of reducing the votes needed to pass from 60 to 51 while attaining deniability on the final vote.
• Assure that the bill does not provide for government run health insurance in competition with private insurers.  This is the so-called camel’s nose in the tent that will lead over time to government monopoly.
• Remember the spectacular debt loads resulting from government-run programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
• Remember the messages of the Town Halls, the Tea Parties, and the ongoing political polls that show the public to be substantially opposed to the health reform and climate control proposals that have come forth.  A majority has concluded that it is better to do nothing than to pass one of the bills.  Ignore these signs at your political peril!
• Observe that health insurance industry profits are lower on average than those of common industries selling to the public and about which there is no outrage expressed.
• Assure that tort reform is passed to eliminate all the frivolous lawsuits that result in higher-than-needed premiums and defensive testing by physicians.  A part of this reform should include a loser-pays-all-costs provision.
• Permit insurance companies to market their products across state borders anywhere in the United States.
• Require that “pre-existing conditions” may not disqualify a person from receiving insurance covering those conditions.
• Facilitate the medical and insurance communities to design programs that promote wellness as well as physician training incentives.
• Support initiatives to negotiate lower drug prices using mass purchasing power.

Do not:

• Support the “greenhouse” gas cap and trade bill that was passed by the House.
• Ignore the warnings of many professionals that the climate program would be a massive tax increase on businesses and therefore on the public.
• Ignore the massive regulatory bureaucracy that would be created and the huge potential for manipulation and dishonesty in the climate bill.
• Support charging anything other than standard premiums by insurers to support the program costs.  Charges (taxes) by the government should be unnecessary and un-allowed.
• Support covering abortions in the mandated insurance coverage.
• Provide for any federal money to insure illegal residents.
• Support analysis of the health bill’s cost using revenues obtained in the years before expenses begin to be paid.
• Force private insurers to cover pre-existing conditions without providing them with a means to pay for it.  My belief is that the best solution is mandatory insurance across all residents of the U.S. using a scheme something like the following:
  • Coverage up to age 21 provided by parents or individual insurance.
  • Above age 21, purchase a standard policy at a standard price.  Everyone is eligible regardless of health condition.
  • Those over 21 at the onset of the plan or who apply later will pay a higher rate that relates the age at onset to the likely remaining lifetime risk.  A formula to give credit for pre-existing insurance must be devised.
  • Those who can’t afford it will be given some form of public/charitable assistance.
  • Those who refuse to be insured will be refused medical service except for life-threatening situations and will be billed for the costs.  There may need to be enabling authority to withhold such care.
  • Those who wish to self-insure will be able to do so and will be billed for any services rendered.
• Support the payment of any federal money except for premium assistance to the demonstrably needy.

There is intense public interest in the machinations of this health reform and climate control process and we will follow what you are doing as it moves along.

Very truly yours,

Donald A. Koop

Member, Roanoke Tea Party