Honorable Sir:  

During the great healthcare debates of 2009-2010, you consistently stayed away from the fray, and after much hand-wringing, presented yourself as undecided up until the very last minute, when you voted for the ACA. After a little arm-wrestling from Hoyer and Pelosi, no doubt.

What exactly is the definition of a “moderate” Democrat?

A moderate would surely not wish to allow the finest health system in history to be destroyed piece by piece by granting total government control of health care to a bunch of government bureaucrats.The astounding number of thousands of exemptions and waivers granted by this administration should be reason enough to end support for this national travesty.

Businesses are unsure of what the future holds, so they are not expanding or hiring, and/or are converting full-time employees to part-time status.

Physician-owned hospitals are prevented from expanding under this Bill, and no new physician-owned hospitals may be opened. Is this what freedom and liberty is all about? I would say that current Med students will have a clear view that they will be serving at the whim of HHS under the provisions of the ACA.

My dear friend and partner suffered from degenerative hip disease, a genetic condition which deteriorated over time. After much research, she decided to pursue a new anterior approach to hip replacement, which neither Memorial nor St Joseph Hospitals offered. No muscle tissue or ligaments are cut using this method, as opposed to traditional hip replacements. We found one doctor in Kalamazoo, and another in Fort Wayne advertising this procedure, and at the last minute discovered that Unity Medical and Surgical Hospital on Edison Lakes Parkway in Mishawaka also offered this procedure. She had the procedure, was walking within three days, and was back to work in one week, as opposed to months and months of recuperation with traditional hip replacements.

The ACA will put an end to private free-enterprise approaches by physician-owned hospitals like Unity.

I also lost a sister-in-law to stage 3c ovarian cancer a couple of years ago, she made it 5 1/2 years, solely due to participating in three or more clinical trials, A couple of them worked, when she did not respond much to traditional chemo therapies. Sadly, the FDA has not approved these treatments for wide-spread use. While the FDA approval process is a separate issue, stage 3c or higher cancer patients have nothing to lose. I fear that there will be no incentive for these types of treatments under the ACA, especially since our dear President himself said that sometimes it might be better to just take a pain pill [and suffer your fate (paraphrased)].

The good news is, you now have a chance to redeem yourself as my representative in the Senate, and I strongly suggest to vote no on cloture concerning the up-coming Continuing Resolution.

Thank you for your consideration,

Rich