Monday, January 14, 2008

Out of Touch with Reality

As a general statement:
Most Members of the U.S. Congress are Out of Touch with Reality regarding Health Care

In mid-June 2007, when I personally went to the offices of the 435 U.S. Representatives and 100 U.S. Senators to notify them about Nine-Nine-Oh-Nine!, I noticed many staff people, such as the personnel for mail, house-keeping, and maintenance.

I spoke with one of those persons briefly, asking them what they had for health insurance. The person assured me that those workers were all set as federal employees. They all have health insurance with the same federal benefits as the U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators. Wow! During the last 20 years my company did exactly what thousands of other companies did. The services that I listed are contracted out. In many cases the resulting personnel performing those services not only have lower pay rates, but their benefits were also slashed. In other words, those people have no health insurance benefits in many cases.

Since our society is slashing wages of the lowest-income workers, the least we could to is to have a fair, equitable, cost-efficient, non-profit health care financing so that everyone has access to health care.

Members of the U.S. Congress are continuously surrounded by people who are not experiencing the same reality as the average American. Why? Because they do not operate their organization in the same fashion as much of the rest of the nation!

With my insurance going up 44% this year and roughly 550% over six years, I am one of those people who is IN the reality that we, the citizens, must work to get single-payer financing ... and get the factor of profit out of health care financing.

By the way, what triggered this sharing was my listening to Morning Edition's segment about health insurance and U.S. Presidential candidates this morning. See or hear it here.

Ah ... there's so much more to say ... but that's enough for today. --- Bob

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