*Ann Marie Buerkle was elected to the US Congress in the 25th District of New York. It took several weeks to count ballots because the election was so close (less than 1% of the votes.) While this column is addressed to Ms. Buerkle, it is intended for any newly elected American Congressional Representative whose platform included the intention to repeal the new healthcare reform law.
Are you also dissatisfied with your elected official's desire to repeal healthcare reform? Feel free to copy this letter and substitute his or her name. Let them know exactly what you think.
Learn more about this letter at About.com Patient Empowerment.
December 7, 2010
Dear Ms. Buerkle,
Congratulations on winning the seat for the 25th Congressional District of the United States.
You and I have much in common. We are both female, Republican, and around the same age. We love our families and care deeply for our fellow human beings.
Further, we both have healthcare experience, and understand the challenges that face healthcare professionals like providers and payers.
However, you don’t seem to understand the challenges that face many patients. And that’s why I did not vote for you.
I disagree with your determination to (quoted from your website) “Defund and Repeal Obamacare.” It shows that you do not understand what healthcare reform means to Americans. Repeal is a choice that says money is more important than human lives.
Consider: in the United States, there is no promise of healthcare. Contrast that with the fact that we promise children an education through the 12th grade. (Although we don’t promise to keep them healthy until they finish.) We also make the promise that if someone’s house is burning, we’ll put out the fire. (However, we make no promise to help them heal if they get burned.)
Healthcare reform is intended to provide those promises. By promoting repeal, you are telling Americans – including many of your constituents – that 47 million of them, mostly working poor, aren’t worthy of that fundamental care.
Granted - the Affordable Care Act, the official name for healthcare reform, is a messy, discombobulated piece of legislation. No question about it. I hoped much more would be done to clean it up prior to passage.
But we had to start somewhere. To simply throw it out, and start over again will cost more lives and more money, plus continued contention, hostility and adversity.
Why not an entirely different approach? Instead of throwing out the healthcare reform baby with the bathwater, why don’t YOU be the one to reach across the aisle? To open dialogue with those who can help affect the changes to the current legislation? To look for creative solutions? To collaborate and negotiate, instead of butting legislative heads against the existing congressional brick wall?
Ms. Buerkle, you now have the opportunity to show us how creative thinking and consensus-building can put a halt to the adversarial, party-line hostility we’ve seen in Washington over this issue. Repeal is not the right answer. I challenge you instead to use innovation and compromise as your tools for getting the job done.
