Dear President Obama: 

      

Currently there is a healthcare scare in our nation that fuels an elongated recession. Did you know that "nearly 46 million Americans, or 18 percent of the population under the age of 65, were without health insurance in 2007" [1]? This is a shocking number of people who go everyday without the coverage or cushion of medical insurance. This is one of the biggest problems that plagues our nation. So many middle-class people are worried about the next time they take a fall, or the next time their back acts up. This problem must be dealt with as soon as humanly possible because of the loss of jobs, the bills of the hospital, and the emotion strain on the human mind.

      First, the issue of danger arises when the American people cannot afford healthcare to insure them because they lost their job. There are many dangers in life, but there are many safeties as well. Healthcare has always been looked at as one of those safe heavens. However currently there is a working freeze in the United States and it is very hard to find a job. It is especially disturbing when ConsumerReports.org says, "While retirees cope with diminished nest eggs, younger workers worry about unemployment increasing. It could reach 8 percent nationally, according to some estimates."[2] And along with job loss comes benefit loss. Former employees will have no means of dental, life or healthcare insurance. In addition when PBS's website comments on this issue they say, "Employers are the primary source of health insurance in the United States, covering 120 million people."[3] This shows that in fact, employers are the main source of any kind of healthcare insurance. Since there is an intense decrease in the jobs available to people, the average citizen may get laid off and their benefits cut off as well as their income.

            Next there arises the issue of who is going to pay the medical bills when a citizen gets hurt. Previously mentioned, the unemployment rate is the highest it's been since the Great Depression. Dr. Himmelstein, who was interviewed on MSNBC, says, "Unless you're Bill Gates, you're just one serious illness away from bankruptcy [and] most of the medically bankrupt were average Americans who happened to get sick."[4] This shows the true side of our healthcare crisis. When an average person can't even afford to spend a couple days in hospital, there is a serious problem. In addition, there are many medical advances that scientists say will be appearing in the future. For an example Dr. Kurzweil says, "We already have experimental blood-cell-sized devices that carry out sophisticated functions such as finding and destroying cancer cells inside the bloodstream" [5] he is explaining what could potentially happen with cancer. But with technology comes more money contributed to that technology; and the people who can't afford simple healthcare now, will absolutely not be able to afford any new advancement in it. In addition, LA Times came out with an article about healthcare and in it the author boldly stated, "I hate to break this to you, but you're paying more for health insurance. Your employer is paying more too, but you're picking up more of the increase by seeing a bigger deduction in your paycheck and by paying higher co-pays."[6] Even though there is a higher deduct in co-pays, the issue still lies that the healthcare companies are getting more than earned. This is important because as citizens, the middle class does not want to worry about paying higher than expected of their already fixed incomes. We know that the middle-class is being affected because New York Times published a statement saying, "The lack of health insurance, a problem once confined mostly to the poor and nearly poor, has reached into the lower middle classes, most notably to those earning $25,000 to $49,999 a year, and even to some above $50,000." [7] The poor used to be the only ones affected by this. This crisis has led to 2 of the three classes to be affected by a healthcare scare.  Furthermore, McCain your opposing candidate had a plan for healthcare. The New Republic's blog says, "And under John McCain's health care plan, that number would likely go up. Maybe way up."[8] This shows, that yes, it was a good thing that you were elected, but there must be something done about this problem, but it shouldn't result in higher taxes in this deep recession.         This shows, that yes, it was a good thing that you were elected, but there must be something done about this problem, but it shouldn't result in higher taxes in this deep recession.

These issues all come down to one big issue: the person. The person affected by the huge gaps in healthcare. The person, and how they react mentally, physically, and emotionally to loss of healthcare. For example, Safer Healthcare says, "Restricted access to competent health care is widely believed to be a major contributing factor to the problem."[9] This shows that when constricted or limited from healthcare tensions can arise with people. Stress can be measured in this crisis and should be dealt with. It can sometimes lead to depression or worse; suicide. Lastly, when the person is affected a nation is affected. For example, Health Care Topics website addresses America's healthcare by saying, "The United States is the only country in the developed world that does not guarantee access to health care as a right of citizenship."[10].be required there would This is a scary, yet very true statement. The United States puts so much emphasis on this but does not require it to be a part of everyday life. If it were to be more people having to pay less medical bills and being able to take care if their family instead.  Why is the rest of the world able to help people in need of healthcare, and we can't as so much help make it a requirement. We can reduce the price according to income so that people are not strained to pay for pricy healthcare. The reasons and facts listed above are real. This crisis is real. Hopefully, this made an impact of how you look at this nation and its needs.

 

 

[2]Lost Jobs, Lost Healthcare. 2009. Consumer’s report. http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/money/personal-investing/a-rescue-plan-for-the-rest-of-us/lost-jobs-lost-health-care/rescue-plan-lost-jobs-lost-health-care.htm (accessed Jan. 4, 2009)

 

 3] Health Insurance. 2008. Healthcare Crisis: Who’s at Risk?.http://www.pbs.org/healthcarecrisis/healthinsurance.html (accessed Jan. 10, 2009)