Write Your Congressperson and Senators (updates)

People, it's time to write our Congress about getting real reform in health care.

Now, next week, July, August, until a bill is sent to Obama. Because real reform will need the people to weigh in and let Congress know we are here, and are paying attention. If you've written your own representatives, consider key legislators next.

Under fee-for-service cost inflation, our current health care system will sap the American economy and future, and bankrupt more and more families.

The government is already profoundly involved in health care, and we need to change the rules of the game, so that the health care system acts more in response to its customers -- you and I, in terms of what we get for our money.

The most important issue is making real fundamental change to counter health care cost inflation, which otherwise will slowly bankrupt us.

Write your Senators about Health Care Reform -- addresses and webmail. And your Congressional Representative -- addresses and webmail.

I suggest fairly short letters. Always good are compelling personal stories. Physical mail is good, and webmail is ok I think. Both is even better.

Personal experiences are meaningful, and those include more than only the most dramatic stories on rescission and outrageous fake coverage. Also meaningful are the year after year increases in costs beginning to overwhelm family budgets. This is a telling point. It deserves the context also: "Senator, I know that our piecemeal fee-for-service system is the driver of these endless increases in costs."

See this post on Dr. Relman for example, and feel free to use any part of my own writings on health care on this blog if you wish, or as a source of points or links. The link to Relman's NPR interview is a good one also.

link text:

http://findingourdream.blogspot.com/2009/07/reforms-to-control-health-care-cost.html

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106470889



For detailed ideas on how to implement a outcome-based compensation instead of fee-for-service:

http://findingourdream.blogspot.com/2009/06/new-way-to-hold-down-health-care-costs.html

-------Update 7/15 -----------------------------

"Deferring reform is nothing more than defending the status quo -- and those who would oppose our efforts should take a hard look at just what it is they're defending," Obama said...

"The status quo on health care is not an option for the United States of America," Obama said. "It is threatening the financial stability of families, of businesses and of government. It's unsustainable."

"It's time for us to buck up Congress, this administration, the entire federal government to be clear that we've got to get this done." -- AP

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Here's my own letter to our Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison:

Senator Hutchison, many people are now becoming aware that health care cost *inflation* will bankrupt more and more businesses and families, every year.

Our future economy, and thus our security, depend on stopping the trend of ever-rising health care costs.

More and more GDP for health care means less for education, research, you name it.

I'm hoping that thousands will write to Congress to let you know that we care enough to support Congress in this reform struggle.

We have to somehow move away from fee-for-service and to some other system, perhaps like the Mayo-Clinic.

Real reform will change the rules, so that the ever-higher costs resulting from piecemeal fee-for-service is no longer dominate.

Please do *real* reform.

Here is one of our top, most knowledgeable Doctors on this:

http://findingourdream.blogspot.com/2009/07/relman-says-current-versions-of-health.html