a note to "my" House Member...

10 July 2012

Tim Huelskamp

Dear Mr. Huelskamp,

According to news reports, members of the House are planning on voting on a bill to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The PPACA was created to solve serious problems. You have had two years to come up with a replacement bill that solves the same problems of:

·       Insuring folks with “pre-existing conditions”

·       Not cancelling health insurance when someone develops a serious illness

·       Keeping co-pays truly affordable

·       Keeping medicine costs and medical device (i.e. diabetic test stripes) costs down

·       Keeping unwed children on their parent’s health insurance till they are 26

·       Eliminating the Medicare “donut hole”

If you vote to destroy “Obamacare,”  please tell me what you propose to replace “Obamacare”with. Kindly refrain from saying “common sense” or “Kansas common sense” approach as neither means anything to me.  The phrase “incremental chance” is equally disingenuous. My math background tells me that an “incremental change” can be zero, positive, negative and extremely small.

What is a person to do if they develop a serious illness and cannot afford health insurance?

Going to the Emergency Room is not a free replacement for regular MD visits. An emergency room MD is focused on solving the problem you present. When I went to the Emergency Room with a broken ankle in 2007, the MD simply dealt with the ankle and did not inquire into my other medical problems. The mentality of an Emergency Room MD is:

“See the problem, solve the problem.”

I have a friend who has two grandchildren who are juvenile onset type 1 diabetics. What are they supposed to do for health insurance when they turn 26?

I know of a man with serious type 2 diabetes, who works 38 hours per week and does get not employer supplied health care insurance. He cannot afford health insurance. He has gone to the Emergency Room several times and is now deeply in debt.  What is he supposed to do?

There are many people like these folks, who have other serious problems and either no medical insurance or grossly inadequate health insurance. They are our fellow Kansans.

What do you propose to do to help them?

Respectfully,