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logo    An Open Letter to Senator John Cornyn and all other Members of Congress


On Friday, May 15, 2009, Senator John Cornyn sent an update to his constituents the gist of which is this: "I believe harnessing the ingenuity and competitiveness of the American people to create more options for patients through the fair market is the best way to spur innovation, keep prices competitive and quality high." Senator Cornyn is one of these Republican true believers who knows what he believes but never checks the facts to see if what he believes is true.

Senator Cornyn, as a member of Congress, has government run and subsidized health care which includes prescription drug benefits along with a government run and subsidized retirement plan. The yearly income of Congressmen exceeds $174,000 which is automatically increased annually for inflation. So I would ask Mr. Cornyn and all of his fellow Congressman, can't you afford medical insurance provided by a private company? And if so, why don't you buy it? If not, how do you expect your constituents earning twenty, thirty, forty, and even fifty thousand dollars a year to afford it? And why have you created your own publicly funded retirement plan? Can't you afford regular contributions to 401Ks? If you can, why did you create a government run and subsidized plan for yourselves? And if you can't, why do you think that your constituents can? Why are such plans good enough for members of Congress but not good enough for your constituents? If government plans are expensive and wasteful, why aren't the government run plans for your benefit expensive and wasteful?

Senator, isn't the current American health care system based on private companies competing in the marketplace? It hasn't yet spurred innovation, kept prices competitive (whatever that means), and it hasn't produced high quality health care. Why would continuing this dastardly system do these things? Senator, you yourself have written, "Congress recently began consideration of various proposals to reform health care - and our biggest challenge is to help make it more affordable. Health care costs have risen far faster than inflation in both good economic times and bad. Health care costs force many self-employed workers into the ranks of the uninsured." Clearly, Senator, the marketplace has not worked. Your own statement proves it, so why are you defending it and attempting to continue it?

You write, "We must work to reduce the costs associated with providing quality care." Then you write, "Reining in health care fraud, waste and abuse could save taxpayers up to $90 billion a year. Reducing lawsuit abuse is also necessary. Texas is a great example of a state that has seen reduced insurance premiums for providers as a result of reducing lawsuit abuse, while still protecting the real victims of medical negligence. A focus on wellness and prevention is also crucial to cutting the cost of health care. I recently introduced legislation with Sen. Tom Harkin, the Healthy Workforce Act, to make comprehensive wellness programs affordable for more small businesses. A new emphasis in the workplace on prevention and wellness will lower the costs businesses incur in providing health care for their employees (emphases mine)." But Senator, not one of the things mentioned lowers the costs for patients.

Then you write, "A Washington-run health care system would mean less individual freedom to make our own health care decisions, including choosing our own doctors. I am concerned that a Washington takeover will deny care and delay treatment." Oh, Senator, who chooses his own doctor? Many private insurers have lists of approved physicians. Often that's not much of a choice. When you go to the Office of the Attending Physician, Senator, how many doctors do you get to choose from? Who makes his own health care decisions? A person gets sick, goes to a doctor, and the doctor makes the decisions. And have you not heard of insurance companies denying care ordered by physicians for their patients? And finally, Senator, how many choices do all those Americans have who lack access to the system? Do they choose their doctors when in the emergency room? Do they select the treatments they receive?

You correctly write, "Americans now spend twice as much per capita on health care than other industrialized nations, our massive investment has not led to higher quality care." Tell me, Senator, why can't we pay for universal, single payer, healthcare by merely diverting what we already spend to a single fund that pays providers directly for whatever treatment and procedure doctors prescribe, no questions asked? If other industrial nations can provide universal healthcare to all of their residents at half the cost of what we Americans pay, why can't America provide the same coverage for twice what other nations pay? No new money is needed, Senator, to fix this broken system. Plenty of money is already being spent; it's just being spent in the wrong places.

The truth, Senator, is that you and many others in the Congress don't want to fix the system. You prefer that the sick and infirm just suffer and die. Their suffering and dying doesn't cost you and those like you anything. You prefer to have corporate America get rich off of the suffering and death of your constituents, because corporate America funds your campaigns, bribing you to do its bidding rather than the bidding of your constituents.

Senator, I don't believe that you believe any of the claptrap you write. You can't be that dumb! But if you are, you certainly don't belong in the U.S.Senate.