A letter to my Congressman, Travis Childers, Mississippi District 1

Congressman,
As a Tax Payer, Voter, Land Owner, Veteran, Husband, Father, Employer, Christian, product of Mississippi Public Education from your district and a VERY proud Mississippian, I urge you to vote NO on the upcoming Health Care Bill. You and I both know that this 2000 page monster is absolutely full of garbage and is seeping gangrene. It contains language pertaining to education, which normally is a good thing, but slap in the middle of a health care debate?

Sen. Tom Coburn's amendment number 49 has the bill running in circles chasing it's tail to pay for things the Federal Government already pays for.

Medicaid is a poorly-performing welfare program. At it's current hunger pang level, it, and Social Security, will consume the entire Federal Budget in less than 40 years. This bill doesn't do enough to address that fact. What is needed is outright reform separate from the Health Care Bill.
This bill means higher taxes and lower payments to doctors. Senator Pat Roberts tried to stop this from happening with amendments 207 and 208. They died horrible deaths.
This bill calls for an increased role of Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER). A number of Senators fear that federal officials could use the data to determine payment, treatment, and coverage decisions, subordinating professional medical judgment in the treatment of patients to regulatory or budgetary considerations. Roberts Amendment #1 , Coburn Amendment #9, Enzi Amendment #7 wrote amendments that would have effectively blocked rationing. These three amendments would have prohibited the use of CER to mandate coverage, deny care, or ration. CER, if used as a rationing tool, would obviously interfere with the traditional doctor-patient relationship. All three amendments failed Sir.
This bill is intent on creating bigger government in a time that the tax payer is cinching his belt already and has been for a very long time. What will you say to the people of this state, or to the employees of your very own district that voted for you that I will be forced to lay off because I cannot afford this gluttonous bill? Will you feed them personally Congressman? Will you drive or fly back to Mississippi to take Tom, one of my employees and his wife to Tupelo because she has had her fifth heart attack? You would have to ride in the Life-Flight helicopter if you did, Mr Congressman, because she has had four of those rides, all paid in full by my provided health insurance that I give free to my employees and families. Will this Health Bill be able to say that Mr Congressman? Each flight was in excess of $7,500.
Tom is too worried about his wife right now to write you. He is busy working safely to make a living to pay their house notes since his wife hasn't worked in many months, but he asks I send you a message, Sir. “Don't mess with my insurance!” he says. I can only concur. Should our countries health care system be reformed? ABSOLUTELY! We need not, however, bomb it with this bill into something completely unfamiliar.
Again Congressman, I plead that you vote NO on the Health Care Bill.

Timothy S Pruitt
Oxford, Mississippi