My wife and I were shocked to see our monthly health insurance premium jump 18 percent this past January. Thankfully, our family of five is healthy and can afford to buy basic coverage, but I feel for those who are not healthy or who can't afford insurance coverage.
Congress has spent much of the past year deliberating over a health care reform bill that frankly has many flaws, including too little cost control. I am a fiscal conservative, and I tend to be much more of a free market thinker. However, the current health care situation is out of control and must be addressed.
Rep. Jean Schmidt, who represents second district in Congress, has been a nonparticipant in the move to achieve health care reform.
The exception, of course, is that Schmidt enjoys receiving the government health care afforded to all members of Congress, and in that way, she does "participate." She has said she intends to vote "no" on the bill that would extend health care coverage to so many uninsured Americans, especially in the low-income areas of Ohio's second district.
Her know-nothing, do-nothing approach to health care has denied the people of our district a voice in the reform debate. The bill now pending could have been a better bill, more responsive to the wishes and special needs of southern Ohio, if we had a functional member of Congress on this issue.
http://www.chillicothegazette.com/article/20100321/OPINION02/3210311/It-s-time-to-pass-health-care-reform