Grassley is not in support of a public option for health care. Tell him we need access to affordable health care in rural America, including a public option so insurance companies have real competition.
Contact Grassley electronically
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Senator Grassley
Attention: Mark Hayes
210 Walnut St.
Des Moines, IA 50309
Editorial by Iowa Farmers Union President, Chris Peterson
The health care reform issue is beginning to move through Congress, so quickly that we could see a full bill in the Senate by early August. This is long overdue news to Iowans who, like my family, have faced significant financial hardship at the hands of the private insurance industry. A comprehensive health care bill in 2009 would finally deliver on a decades old campaign promise made by nearly every elected official in Washington today. But the devil, as always, is in the details.
Passing a health care bill this year is absolutely vital to our country’s economic stability. However, in order to ensure the American people receive a quality bill, Congress must tackle the cost and access barriers that are at the heart of this crisis. The bill currently being formed by our own Senator Charles Grassley’s Senate Finance Committee DOES NOT tackle these very significant obstacles.
Iowans need a bill that drives down health care costs, creates needed competition in an industry that is monopolized by a few powerful private insurance companies, and holds employers accountable by contributing to their workers’ health care. This could be accomplished through the creation of a public health insurance option and establishing employer responsibility standards. Both of these initiatives are being left out of the Finance Committee bill because of Senator Grassley’s refusal to compromise.
It seems Senator Grassley has a lot of misconceptions about a public health insurance option. It is important to understand it is merely an option. If you like your insurance plan, you can keep it. But for Americans who have no current coverage or have a plan that fails to meet their needs, the public option would introduce a key element of competition for consumers. A recent Iowa poll shows 56 percent of residents want a public option. Iowans will stand for nothing less.
Iowans, especially in rural areas, have suffered for too many years to see real reform fail yet again due to political posturing. The health care crisis in the current economic downturn is hitting rural areas harder than the rest of the country, where access to physicians is already severely lacking. Rates of poverty are higher, with 15% of people in rural areas living below the poverty level compared to 12% of people in urban areas.
Also, the rural economy is dominated by small businesses, which are struggling as the cost of health care continues to skyrocket. We’re losing jobs at a faster rate than the rest of the nation, and loss of jobs often leads to loss of health coverage.
The problem is worse for farmers, like Senator Grassley and me. As a lifelong family farmer, he should understand how badly we need access to better health care options. The majority of Iowans get their health insurance from work. Family farmers don’t usually have that option. We’re forced to find our coverage on the private, individual market.
This is the private market that dropped my family’s coverage when we needed it most, due to a mismatched height and weight record in our medical history. Now, we’re burdened with thousands of dollars in medical debt, a reality faced by one in eight Iowa farmers.
Dropping insurance coverage is a practice called “rescission.” Rescission is the practice where private insurance underwriters drop an individual’s insurance coverage simply because of an undisclosed, and often minor, occurrence in the patient’s medical history. Just last week the nation’s three top insurance company CEO’s refused to discontinue this practice. Opposing the creation of a public health insurance option means allowing your health care to be controlled by for-profit companies who plan to find ways to drop your coverage when you need it most.
The time is fast approaching when a bill will be finalized, and Congress takes a vote. Senator Grassley has heard from Iowans throughout this process and knows what we’re calling for. He has the power to level the playing field and create real competition in the private sector. His support on the Senate Finance Committee will ensure the implementation of a needed public health insurance option.
Now it is up to Senator Grassley to decide which is more important: the needs of his constituents or the will of the predatory private insurance industry.
-Chris Petersen, Iowa Farmers Union President
Contact information for Senator Grassley can be found here.