Your Action Item for the Day

Blue Mass. Group has done a great job covering the ongoing struggle for Massachusetts to come up with a health care bill. Right now the health care conference committee is still working out the details. BMG asks that we contact our St. Reps and Senators and let them know that we support the original House bill.

You know, if you do -- it's the best one going, so that's what I'm supporting.

David even provides a handy sample letter to inspire you.

As your constituent, I am writing to express my concern over news reports that negotiators on the health care bill are considering (1) dropping the employer "pay or play" provision; (2) increasing the surcharges on the employers who already provide health care; and (3) imposing an individual mandate on all Massachusetts residents.

As someone who strongly supported the original House bill, this strikes me as very bad news - close to the worst of all possible worlds. I think an individual mandate is a very bad (and possibly unconstitutional) idea, though I could grudingly accept it as part of a package that included employer "pay or play." But I cannot support it on its own, nor can I fathom why we would further penalize employers who are already trying to do the right thing by covering their employees.

This is starting to look distressingly like "RomneyCare," which would force individuals to buy health insurance without really helping them do it, and which would continue to let Wal-Mart and others who don't cover their employees off the hook. The least desirable outcome would be to make the current situation worse, and then claim victory, making any actual reform of the system next to impossible.

I urge you in the strongest possible terms to advocate for the original House bill, and to resist efforts by AIM and the Chamber of Commerce (who, as you know, do not speak for all businesses) to foist the entire burden of reforming the health care system onto those who can least afford it.

Thank you for your consideration.

If you don't know who your representitives are, hit up Project Vote Smart

The special interests groups like the National Federation of Independent Business are out in force trying to convince people to accept the status quo. They've even dropped off their flaming bag of dog poo at my local townie paper. You can see the same thing here and at this local paper. Slow news day, I guess.

I wrote a rebuttal letter to the editor of the Townsend Times. We'll see if they print it.