Dear President Obama

Dear President Obama;

I am writing today to express my extreme disappointment in your administration’s handling of the healthcare reform issue.

In seeking bipartisanship for passage of healthcare reform you have, it appears, bargained away the best vehicle for true reform of a badly broken, poorly functional system. I do not understand why you would seek bipartisanship with the Republicans when they have indicated time after time that they are not going to even meet you half-way. As my dearly departed mother used to say, “It takes two to Tango, but these people haven’t even come to the dance”.

What is even more galling is that, by your own definition expressed in Colorado this past Saturday, the only way we are going to get the budget deficit down is to get healthcare costs under control; caving in to the insurance industry in abandoning the ‘public option’ is a sure-fire recipe for disaster. The ‘public option’ is the only way that the insurance industry can be kept in check. It’s the reason why a pitcher will ‘climb the ladder’, so to speak, against a batter that is crowding the plate; it keeps the game honest.

What is more disturbing is that, when polled, popular support for the ‘public option’ was at 72%. The greatest majority of respondents want the option of a government-backed mechanism for obtaining health insurance at a reasonable price. Such a mechanism would, by necessity, not cancel coverage when a person needs medical care, or not be covered for a pre-existing condition, or the plethora of reasons that private insurers utilize to cancel coverage at their own caprice; recission.

Health insurance ‘co-ops’ as they are termed are not a viable alternative. Their success has not been firmly established; indeed, there are many that have failed, as they do not have the financial power to negotiate prices with hospitals and other providers. Essentially, ‘co-ops’ are a bad solution, compared to Medicare or the Veterans Administration. As a model for a successful system, the VA outperforms even the private sector by utilizing the latest technology to deliver better patient outcomes at lower cost.

Phillip Longerman has detailed the best way to provide healthcare for this country in his excellent work, “Best Care Anywhere”.

Mr. President, we have looked to you for leadership on this most vital issue. And you have made an excellent case for the ‘public option’. I fail to understand why you would not be willing to ‘go to the mat’ for the people who elected you. We went out and knocked on doors, made phone calls and hundreds of thousands of small contributions to your campaign to get you elected President. Now, at this most critical moment, you appear willing to appease those who have openly stated that they want you to fail as our leader. This is not “change you can believe in”, to quote one of your themes during your presidential campaign. It may be a cliché that “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”, but in this case I feel it to be apropos. Failing to draw a line in the sand and then stand up for the right course is a sure path to defeat and loss of Democratic control of Congress, not to mention insuring that you will be a one-term President.

I do not wish to see that happen. And I am confident that I speak for many of my fellow citizens; most particularly those 47 million Americans who currently do not have health care coverage, when I say, “Stand up for what you believe in, to hell with the easy, cowardly way of compromise with your opponents who only seek your destruction anyway”.

It’s up to you, Mr. President.

Respectfully,

R. Roger Beck

Palm Desert, CA