Good, Bad and Ugly in Healthcare

As a responsible citizen, I have been trying to learn as much as I can about President Obama’s proposed healthcare reform plan. I guess that means I’m more informed than a few of our elected officials.

As I found out more about the plan, I liked it less. As you may have guessed, I’m not the type to suffer in silence, so I told my congressman, Brian Baird, and my Senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell that I had a few nonnegotiable positions on healthcare. Here they are.

· The healthcare plan congress adopts for me must be the healthcare plan senators and congressional representatives adopt for themselves. Why should I accept a plan that my elected representatives are unwilling to use?

· My doctor and I make my healthcare decisions. I don’t want some bureaucrat with a high school diploma telling my doctor what treatments I am allowed.

· No rationing of healthcare. I’m old enough that I do not want a plan that rations care for seniors or anyone else. If someone needs a procedure, they should be able to get it. No one should wait for month or years.

· No giant government healthcare agency that sucks up tax dollars like a sponge. The last thing this nation needs is a new federal agency with a host of new bureaucrats to run it.

· No new taxes on anyone. Taxes reduce financial viability. This is not the time to be putting brakes on economic growth.

· No funding of abortion. Abortion is killing. Medicine should be about saving lives.

· No tax dollars to provide healthcare for illegal aliens. Sure, cover every citizen and any noncitizen here legally, but not one dollar for anyone here illegally.

If congress believes that healthcare reform is needed they should design a plan. However, all members of congress should take the time to read it, hold town hall meetings and give their constituents time to analyze and discuss it. What is the hurry President Obama?

Update on Tuesday, August 4, 2009 at 1:12PM by Kyle Pratt

When the White House asked for Americans to report what their neighbors were saying in casual conversations, emails and on the web regarding government healthcare policy, I forwarded this article to the President at flag@whitehouse.gov .