Meh...I wrote the President everyday and all I got was this crappy form letter

[Thickasabrick]

I wrote and posted this letter back on December 22. I have been sending the same letter everyday.

Dear Mr. President......One Simple Question and I will Shut Up. I understand there is some controversy surrounding whether you supported, campaigned or pushed for the public option. Whatever, at the end of the day we will not have a public option, or a medicare buy in. When you did talk about a public option you cited the very important reason for one which would provide competition and keep the insurance industry "honest" which would keep premiums affordable for everyone - especially since everyone would have to buy the product.

My question is this - what is the alternative? What mechanism will there be to provide competition and affordability? You said you got 95% of everything you wanted in the bill and skyrocketing premium costs must have made up at least 20% of what you wanted.

Please just help me understand this and I will shut up.

Today, I finally received an answer:

Dear Friend:

Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. I have heard from countless Americans struggling to afford health insurance and health professionals striving to provide care. I appreciate your perspective.

There is broad consensus among the American people on the need for affordable, high-quality health care. The rising cost of health care is the most pressing financial challenge for families and for our Nation, and controlling this cost is essential to bringing down the Federal deficits we inherited. We must also end unfair insurance practices that leave millions of Americans without coverage, deny them access to coverage, and expose them to extraordinary burdens. And we should ensure that small businesses have access to affordable, high-quality health plans for their employees so that we can make our economy - and our small businesses - more competitive. Now is the time to move forward, and I am working to get health insurance reform done.

Since I took office, we have done more to improve health care than we have in the previous decade. In February, I signed H.R. 2 to provide coverage for millions of children through the Children's Health Insurance Program, and I signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to make key investments in computerized medical records and preventive services.

Still, more must be done to lower costs, expand coverage, and improve the quality of health care. Health insurance reform must provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance; make sure those who do not have insurance can find affordable options; and lower the cost of health care for our families, our businesses, and our government. Reform will benefit seniors by protecting and strengthening Medicare, closing the "donut-hole" gap in coverage for prescription drugs, and providing free preventive care. To help fulfill the debt we owe to our service men and women, I am committed to ensuring that we provide the highest-quality health care possible to America's veterans. My 2010 budget requests the largest single-year increase in funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs in three decades and significantly expands health care coverage to an additional 500,000 veterans by 2013.

Ultimately, there are tough choices to be made, and I am working to bring employers and workers, health care providers and patients together to create a system that delivers high-quality health care and puts the Nation on a sustainable, long-term fiscal path. To learn more about my Health Insurance Reform Plan or to share a personal story, please join me online at:
www.HealthReform.gov. For further information on health care and assistance that may be available to you, you may call 1-800- FED-INFO or visit: www.USA.gov.

I share the sense of urgency that millions of Americans have voiced. I watched as my ailing mother struggled with stacks of insurance forms in the last moments of her life. This is not who we are as a Nation; together, we will fix it.


Sincerely,

Barack Obama

Not once is the public option or what will take it's place is mentioned. I am going to write him back and thank him for the letter but that it really didn't answer my original question and that I am still waiting.

[secondwind]

1. good luck, and keep us posted! I am interested in whether they reply again!

[donco6]

2. Maybe if you included a $100K donation you'd get a real reply.

Heck, you probably could stay in the Lincoln bedroom.

Of course, if you had $100K to give away, you wouldn't need to worry about health care.

[Oregone]

3. There simply is no answer to your question

This reform isn't about lowering per capita costs. Its about shifting costs from the poor to middle-class union workers, and guaranteeing health insurers have an ample supply of customers.

This entire bill will eventually have to be dismantled for a true step forward

[Thickasabrick]

8. Would you mind if I included your comment in my reply? I am going

to tell him I posted his response on a discussion board and give him a sample of the reaction.

[Oregone]

9. I don't mind, but do not think itll make a difference

:)

[Echo In Light]

4. "They don't care about you at all, at all, at all." - George Carlin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYIC0eZYEtI

[Goldstein1984]

5. I got the same letter, I just wrote at the bottom...

"Please don't waste the paper, postage or my time with this kind of bullshit."

And I mailed it back.

Up until that letter, I had only ever used that response with Don Young, Lisa Mankowski, and her dad.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

6. Did you honestly think he would respond to you personally?

How much free time do you think he has?

[Thickasabrick]

7. Hell no, but his peeps should be able to come up with a form letter

to answer our questions about the public option. There are many of us you know.

[struggle4progress]

10. Hm. There are over 300 million people in the US, and you want a personal response

to a not-very-helpful letter that you send again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and ...

[Oregone]

11. Most of those 300 might also be curious about cost-control mechanisms

You know, when they aren't in the middle of a Playstation game or Twittering

[Thickasabrick]

12. As I stated in the post above yours, hell no - I want a crappy form letter

response to the public option question which is a very big deal to a lot of us.

[bvar22]

13. "Public Option" has been declared Non-Speak.

Dear Citizen,
Obama NEVER campaigned on the Public Option.
He NEVER even mentioned it.
Those who CARE about YOU have ordered "it" down the memory hole.
Please refrain from ever mentioning "it" again,
as this is NOT good for The Party.
If YOU continue to use the abolished phrase, you WILL be Mandated to BUY worthless Insurance, AND report to a Re-Education Center.
Obama and The Democrats LOVE you,
and KNOW what is best for YOU!

Your Local Political Correctness Commissar

[Cant trust em]

14. Keep waiting. I never expect to get anything more than boiler plate out of this. nt