I never write my elected officials in the State or US Congress because it doesn’t seem to do any good. They do what they want to do. The healthcare reform stuff is a good example. This piece of legislation is about to pass by something called reconciliation or a vote of a simple majority. If that doesn’t work, the President can act along as authorized by Article I, Section B of the Constitution, which allows him to declare war without approval of Congress. He will be declaring war on the American People with the current version of healthcare reform. I have finally broken with my practice of not writing to my elected officials. I have written a letter but it will do no good because he is a Republican who has no voice.

After listening to the healthcare Summit I am convinced that Republican and Democrats are both wrong, but yet both are right. We need reform but we don’t need to crush the country with increasing the national debt. If they would only listen to me and stop their current partisan bickering The Republicans need to stop saying NO and being afraid Obama is going to get credit for the legislation. The Democrats need to be aware of the cost. If they would only listen to me.

The following is my proposal:
1. Reform of the greedy insurance companies. No more of this denial of coverage because of preexisting conditions.
2. Elimination of physician self-referral or require physician disclosure if they own the equipment they are using for diagnosis and treatment.
3. Coordination of care among providers.
4. Aggressively attack fraud and abuse with greater scrutiny of claims and strict enforcement of laws for those who are guilty.
5. Mandate coverage with subsidy for those who cannot pay after needs assessment.
6. Malpractice reform with cap on non-economic or punitive damages.

If we did the above, the 40 million uninsured could easily be covered without increasing the national debt or increasing taxes even on the rich. We should eliminate the current 2000 page document with all its pork, like government coverage of Medicaid in Nebraska just to get one senators vote.

It would be good to get some other news on the porch besides healthcare reform and gridlocks in Washington. The nice thing about the Olympics is the US seems to be united in the support of our athletes. At least we are united about something, but I’m sure there are folks who don’t ever support the Olympics.