LETTER TO THE EDITOR | It’s time for an alternative

To the editor:

I read with great interest the recent letter from Charlona Sawyer of Greenbank regarding healthcare for all Americans in the form of HR 676. I thought the basic outline of what she thought the bill said was a good idea and is needed by many millions of Americans.

Where Ms. Sawyer lost me was in the “And guess who gets to help pay for this wonderful program?”

The expense of this plan would be paid for by the top 5 percent income earners, a progressive excise tax, a “small tax” on stock and bond trades, all good ideas in my opinion.

So I called Rep. Rick Larsen’s office in Washington, D.C. to find out where he stood on this issue and a staffer read his position to me. He is not in favor of a government-backed public plan that would compete with the private/for-profit insurance corporations. Larsen is in favor of making sure the needs of the American people do not get in the way of for-profit enterprises.

As an American, I am outraged that a representative who is supposed to work for me and the majority of his constituents is against what the majority of “The People” want — adequate healthcare for themselves and their familes.

Almost 50 million Americans are without health coverage, yet there are morons in the conservative mainstream corporate media who claim “we have the best healthcare system in the world,” not to mention the ordinary people who have been fooled by their propaganda.

I am watching with real interest where this debate is going. I for one would love to have an alternative to what I have now, paying my fair share to a CEO’s billion-dollar bonus.

Or we have the reality of “choice in America,” If you get ill, you can go broke paying for the care you need or just die.

All while people like my congressman, who enjoys a very good health plan courtesy of the “public” and some of the top 5 percent income earners for whom healthcare costs don’t even show up in their household budgets, say “let them eat cake.”

Dan Freeman

Clinton

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