Next Step: Medicare Buy-In; My letter to my Congressman

Dear Congressman Berman:

First, I want to thank you for being a strong supporter of the historic and vital health care reform legislation which just passed. I know from communicating with you in the past that you were and are a supporter of stronger measures, including a robust public option.

Now I want to urge you to sign on as a co-sponsor of the newly introduced "Medicare You Can Buy Into" bill, HR 4789. This is what is really needed.

It's a simple 3-and-a-half page bill that would let everyone have access to Medicare if they were willing to pay for it.

There are 80 co-sponsors already. I believe that this bill will go a long way to making health care really affordable and control its spiraling costs, by giving people a real alternative to the wasteful private insurance market, and providing real competition which will have the effect of making everyone's health care less costly and more effective.

As a Democrat, I don't need to argue to you that what makes for competition is not just a laissez-faire, anything goes system, but a balanced and regulated market, where public institutions actually ENSURE competition.

Please support HR 4789, and help make the first step towards real health care reform which has already been taken just that... a first step... towards a balanced and competitive system that really does guarantee efficient and affordable health care for everyone.

Thank you.

David Studhalter
North Hollywood, CA

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What I hope to eventually see is real Medicare for All, where health care is treated simply as a right, to be paid for from taxes, with those who want to purchase more luxurious coverage or directly buy private care free to do so on the private market. But this bill would be a tremendous improvement over the current system, and would allay many of the potential problems foreseen by many economists with the newly passed system.