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CAG Issues - Health Care -
Letter to the Editor Templates
Letter to the Editor Templates
These templates were written specifically for those unsure of what kind of message to convey when it comes to writing a good letter to the editor in regards to supporting a public health care plan. Feel free to use these or incorporate them into your own letter. The templates are pretty self-explanatory. Remember, letter to the editors should be 250-300 words or less in length. Please send us a copy of letters you send in to your local newspaper and let us know when they print them. Thanks!
With almost 50 million Americans lacking health insurance and hundreds of West Virginians losing their health insurance per day, now is the time for the government to take action. The current system is unaffordable for families, businesses and government due to the rising cost of health care and the insurance industry putting profits before people.
To remedy this, I am advocating for a public health insurance option for my family and families across America. This would slow the growth in medical costs, inject competition into the private health insurance market, and guarantee that high-quality, affordable coverage will be there for individuals and families no matter what happens to their jobs or their health. We would have their choice of doctors and hospitals and are entitled to comprehensive benefits including preventive services and treatment for serious conditions.
A public health insurance plan would also help fix the economy by keeping workers healthy and productive, thereby reducing preventable illness and sick days and yielding higher profits, and reducing our long-term health care expenses by cutting administrative costs and emphasizing prevention of serious conditions and catastrophic care.
The time is now for real health insurance reform that includes a choice of a public health insurance plan!
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The recent offer by the health insurance industry to voluntarily trim costs by $2 trillion over the next decade made me think of nothing so much as a bullying, abusive spouse who will say anything to get his victim to return for another round of abuse. The real question is whether we will continue to be helpless victims of the health insurance industry or if we have the strength to fight for a public health insurance plan, the only option which will force the bullies to play fair. Health insurance companies are about profit, not health. As long as they have Americans' health care in their grip, we will continue to suffer at their mercy while they rake in profits. How long will we put up with it?
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It is essential that we have a public health care option. Nothing will change under a plan limited to the present insurance company plans. Inflation of both care and drugs will continue and millions of Americans will not be able to afford health care. The insurance and pharma administrations are getting big salaries. There has to be an option motivated by patient care instead of only profit if we are all going to have health care equality. That option is a public health insurance plan. Let every American decide whether they want to keep the insurance they have, or whether they want to opt in to a public health insurance option that would compete with the private industry and keep it on its toes.
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Since health care costs are rising by more than 6 percent a year, the health insurance companies' recent offer to voluntarily cut costs by 1.5% is not generous. It is a desperate measure to prevent what they're really afraid of, and that is competition from a fair public health insurance plan. The President and Congress should turn their ears toward their constituents, who desperately want affordable insurance, and not toward the insurance companies, who can outspend us but do not serve our interests. Congress and the President must pass real health care reform this year - reform that includes the option of a public health insurance plan.
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In a thinly veiled attempt to derail a public insurance plan, the health insurance industry promised recently to reduce health care cost inflation by 1.5 percent a year. Given that health insurance costs are increasing by nearly four times that amount each year, I have to say that I am underwhelmed by this voluntary effort. We need a public health insurance plan so that all Americans will have an affordable choice for health insurance. Once the health insurance industry is forced to actually compete, I believe they will be compelled to find a lot more than a paltry 1.5 percent reduction in cost inflation. Although many Americans are fortunate to have employer-sponsored health insurance, every year we have seen our out-of-pocket costs increase by much more than 1.5 percent! Unchecked, this sort of inflation will in time lead to health care for only the few and very wealthy. As the saying goes, if you don't have your health, you don't have anything. Let's make sure every American has their health.
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Too many people in this country have no health insurance. And too many more have such limited and costly insurance that they are forced to restrict their medical visits because they can't afford to pay the copay. A public health insurance plan will give people one more option and will increase choice, not put limits on it. HMO's have placed limits on people's choices. Costs have risen tremendously after the private insurance companies created HMO's and assured us the HMO limitations would cut costs. Private insurance has been a huge financial, physical, and emotional expense to individuals, families, employers, and the nation. And it has been a huge profit machine for insurance companies. The only way to make health care reform work for patients and payers is to allow the option of a public insurance plan. This is the only way to compel the insurance industry to follow through on their promises this time.
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Here we go again! More lies, to keep the American citizens dumbed-down. The insurance companies promised to cut health care costs by 1.5 percent a year. Big deal? Not at all. What they don't say is that the costs are rising more than 6 percent a year. That's a big deal! President Obama and lots of our representatives promised us a fair and competititve insurance plan. So let's keep their feet to the fire to give us what we want and desperately need - health care reform, that gives us the option of a public plan. Don't let the insurance companies bully us!
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Recently the insurance industry and their allies promised President Obama that they'll cut health care cost inflation by 1.5 percent a year. Of course, costs are actually rising by more than 6 percent a year, and the industry only promises voluntary efforts to trim that. The industry knows that the only way to make reform work for patients and payers is to allow the option of a public health insurance plan. Premiums and co-pays paid to insurance companies fund executive bonuses and stock dividends -- nothing wrong with that but they have no place in health care. This is money diverted from caring for our health. Medical insurance companies are profiteering middlemen that further suck the life out of our health and our economy. To make health care reform work for the people of this country, we need a public health insurance option that will compete with private plans and make them more competitive.
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Everyone should know there's a big struggle going on right now in Congress. Rich insurance and pharmaceutical corporations are trying to block health care reform by talking the Senate and Obama administration out of their plan to include a public health insurance option in any proposed reform. Absurdly, these companies are proposing a non-binding pledge to voluntarily reduce their price increases from 6 percent a year to 4.5 percent a year if the government only will protect them from any competition. Congress and the President shouldn't listen to the insurance companies. They should listen to voters, who overwhelmingly want a public health insurance option that covers everyone all the time, just like members of Congress and the president already have. Congress and the President must pass health care reform this year that gives us the option of a public plan.
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The insurance industry is now promising they'll cut health care cost inlaftion by 1.5 percent a year and somehow want us to think this is a big deal! Costs are actually rising by 6 percent each year. Oh, and remember what happened the last time we took a massive industry's word that they would voluntary pitch in to make things better for US (hint: b_nks). Scam alert! Obama and Congress should listen to the voters, not the industry, and give us some health care reform that actually means something!
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There has been a lot of hoopla over the insurance companies recently sitting down with President Obama and pledging to voluntarily cut insurance costs. They are in business, and their bottom line is profit. They would not even be making this gesture if the public was not up in arms. They cannot be trusted to have the public's interest in mind. We need a public health insurance option. It is the only way to bring down insurance costs and provide quality, affordable health care to all. The rest is smoke and mirrors. Don't let that collection of thieves and scoundrels dictate the terms of health care reform.
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After decades of steadily driving up the cost of health care, our friends in the health insurance business want us to "trust" them to reform themselves. The idea that private enterprise can run our health care system is not credible, without allowing for the profits that they are determined to make at our expense. Have you ever had difficulty getting a health form filled out? Wondered if you qualified? Worried about a loved one who has no insurance? Gotten angry at the profits of health insurance companies? Does it ever make you wonder what kind of a reasonable health care system would force uninsured people to go to a very expensive emergency room when they have a flu or a minor health issue? Please encourage our representatives and president to create real, meaningful reform - a health care system that goes beyond "qualifying," covers all members of our society, and does not require us to fill out forms for each visit to a doctor or a hospital.
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True health care reform, which is what President Obama promised when he ran for office, includes a public health care option. Without it, no reform will result in true cost savings. Don't be fooled by the insurance industry's sweet talk. If there's no public health insurance option, it's not true reform.
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I find it unconscionable that health insurance companies are promising to cut health care insurance by 1.5 percent a year when costs are actually rising by more than 6 percent. This is unconscionable because it's a ploy on the part of the health insurance industry to block health care reform that offers a public plan option. We desperately need a health care system that makes health care accessible to all and private plans do not do this. Moreover, a promise on the part of the health care industry to "reduce costs" is empty because follow-up accountability is absent, costs are outpacing their "promised" cuts and far too many of us continue to be excluded from the care we need and deserve.
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I saw a article recently that the insurance companies are offering to voluntarily cut their costs by 1.5 percent. Yet I see our costs increasing while benefits seem to be less. As corporations the insurance companies are obligated to maximize profits for their stockholders .This is the same reasons Wall Street gives lately for all their misdeeds. We can't trust them to abandon their stockholders and suddenly look after the end users – the rest of us. We need a reason for them to keep these promises .The best reason would be competition. The best competition would be a public health insurance plan option we could choose from. This would give them the reason to give us the best plan they can and compete for our health care business instead of being gifted with it.
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It appears that the majority of the population demands comprehensive health care reform that guarantees quality, affordable care for all. Sensing the pressure, the insurance companies recently promised President Obama that they will cut costs by 1.5 percent a year. The fact is that health care costs are rising yearly by over 6 percent. We do not need promises. What we need is an public health insurance option. Those who fear a government takeover of the health care system could still enjoy their private plan while those less fortunate who have no plan at all or who think they are paying too much could choose a public health insurance plan.
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Recently the insurance industry and their allies promised President Obama that they'll cut health care cost inflation by 1.5 percent a year. The insurance companies want us to believe this is a big deal, but it's not. Heath care costs are actually rising by more than 6 percent a year, and the industry is only promising voluntary efforts to trim that. This is a disingenuous attempt by the health insurance companies to derail health care reform we need. The only way to make reform work for patients and payers is to allow the option of a public health insurance plan. A fair, competitive public health insurance plan will compel the insurance industry to find the savings they've promised, and give Americans another choice if they don't. President Obama and lots of congressional leaders have committed to that in the past, but insurance companies are trying to talk them out of it. Congress and the President should not listen to the insurance companies. They should listen to voters. Congress and the President must pass health care reform this year that gives us the option of a public health insurance plan.
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