See Isakson on health care this week
U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (left) with fellow Georgia Republican Saxby Chambliss (right) and your average constituent.
Some guy named Barack asked me to go by U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s office in Cobb County this week to let Isakson know what I think about health insurance reform. OK, well, actually it wasn’t Barack. It was somebody who work for him. But I’m going anyway.
This seems like the most effective counter-move to the ill-informed mobs that are trying to shutdown open discussion on health care by shouting over anyone who disagrees with them and by hanging congressmen in effigy.
I’m disgusted by the bullies, and was a little worried last week that the country’s best chance ever at health reform would go to waste if better informed people didn’t speak up. So I signed up at Barack Obama’s Organizing for America site. And last night, I got an e-mail suggesting that I stop by Isakson’s office at a preset time.
Here’s what I’m going to tell Isakson (or more likely, his staff member):
I’m a longtime constituent of Johnny Isakson. My support for him goes back to the 1990 governor’s race.
I’ve started a business whose plan calls for growing its workforce to five people, right here in Georgia. But the country’s current health insurance mess may prevent us from staying at it. If so, I won’t be able to create those jobs.
My wife, who is pregnant, and I are on COBRA. Under the current rules, we’ll lose COBRA in early 2010 and won’t qualify for another private plan because of a relatively minor pre-existing condition. If health insurance reform doesn’t pass this year, we may have to throw in the towel, and either seek work with an employer who has health insurance (which is increasingly difficult) or maybe even sign up for Medicaid.
Doesn’t it seem perverse, and against taxpayers’ interests, for the system to drive a professional couple (who have worked our entire lives!) away from creating jobs and toward Medicaid?
The reforms working their way through the House and the Senate would address our situation by allowing people to get insurance if they had pre-existing conditions and by doing many things to rein in costs. It’s not perfect. But it’s a big step in the right direction. And it would give our business a fighting chance.
Johnny was a state legislator of mine when I was kid. When I grew up, I voted for him in the governor’s race because I admired his independence and honesty. I hope he’ll reach for that independent judgment again by voting for the health reform working its way through Congress. If he did vote for reform, he’d make a lasting impression on me and many others that he’s willing to break free from partnership and do what’s good for his constituents.
Now, it’s your turn. Don’t be silent. This is a crucial issue for all of us. So sign up for Organizing for America and stop by Isakson’s office this week to urge him to support health insurance reform. Organizing for America has put together a pretty good strategy but it depends on people who care about the issue showing up.
Once I scheduled a time slot (on Thursday), the campaign sent me some basic facts:
* Obama is pushing for a plan that forces an end to: “discrimination for pre-existing conditions,” “exorbitant out-of-pocket expenses,” “cost-sharing for preventative case,” “dropping of coverage for seriously ill,” “gender descrimination,” and “annual or lifetime caps for coverage.” And his plan for “extended coverage for young adults” and “guaranteed insurance renewal.”
* Nearly 1.9 million Georgians are ininsured (it was 1.7 million just a few years ago), and “1,590 will lose their coverage every week because of rising costs.” Organizing for America also claims that “our broken health insurance system will cost the Georgia economy as mush as $9 billion this year in productivity losses due to lack of coverage.”
I’m a bit more optimistic this week than last. After watching the ill-informed people behave like thugs (even to conservative Republican lawmakers), I started thinking that they’d overreached and were doing more to hurt their side than to help it.
The talk radio and Fox News demagogues were still at it last week. Glenn Beck even suggested poisoning Nancy Pelosi; that stuff’s scary but it’s not going to help the anti-reform political hand. The pro-reform groups are urging people to be courteous, factual and not accusatory.
Nice work, Mr. Beck! You keep doing that, we’ll keep being civil, and we should have health insurance reform by Christmas.
Here’s the address to Isakson’s office: One Overton Park, Suite 970, 3625 Cumberland Blvd, Atlanta, GA 30339. Tel: (770) 661-0999. Fax: (770) 661-0768. But it probably will be more effective to sign up for Organizing for America first. In this kind of thing, coordination helps, plus the group can alert you to other effective steps you can take to help health reform.
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