I called Rep. Chellie Pingree's office a day or so ago to inquire whether she would be holding one or more "town hall" forums where I could ask her a few questions about the pending health-care reform bill working its way through Congress. The person who answered the phone, however, told me she had no plans to do so.
I was disappointed. After all, she works for us.
If she's worried about being confronted by "unruly mobs of Nazis," as Speaker Nancy Pelosi has described those who show up at "town halls" to ask questions of their elected representatives, I suggest that's a poor excuse for a Maine congresswoman to hide out.
Maine people are civil. She should know that by now.
If I'd met with her, I would have asked her the following questions:1. Have you read the House bill in its entirety? I have downloaded all 1,017 pages of it and am currently working my way through it.
2. Can you promise me that I will not lose my current plan and doctor? President Barack Obama says it's "not legitimate" to claim the "public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system." But Reps. Barney Frank, D-Mass., Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., and Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman have all admitted that the public option will inevitably lead to government-run health care. The independent and non-partisan Lewin Group estimates that about 83.4 million people would lose their private insurance if the current health-care bill becomes law.
3. Can you promise me that you and your family will enroll in the public plan? Pingree and her family currently receive health care through the popular and completely public-option-free, Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). That program allows members of Congress to choose among 283 private health insurance plans.
If the public plan is so great, then members of Congress should be willing to forfeit their private coverage and join the millions of Americans who would be moved into the public plan. Why not simply offer FEHBP as the public option? It seems to me that to do so would eliminate all the new expensive bureaucracy that accompanies the proposed public plan.
4. Can you promise me that the proposed public plan will not lead to higher deficits in the long term? President Obama said that he wouldn't support health-care legislation that would add to the national deficit.
But Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Elmendorf has stated that the House health-care legislation would "generate substantial increases in federal budget deficits during the decade beyond the current 10-year budget window."
5. Can you promise me that government bureaucrats will not ration health care for patients on the public plan? President Obama promised on July 22 that health-care reform would keep the government out of health-care decisions, but both the House and Senate bills call for an increased role of Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER). More information about health-care effectiveness is good, as long as doctors and patients are the ones empowered to use that information.
Members of Congress in both the House and Senate offered amendments prohibiting the use of CER by government to mandate, deny or ration care. These anti-rationing amendments were defeated in both the House and Senate. I'm sure that I'm not the only person who would like answers to these questions from Congresswoman Pingree. Perhaps she will respond to my questions by a letter to the Morning Sentinel. I certainly hope so. These questions deserve answers. |