Dean's Letter To The President

Posted by: Staff in Health Care Reform on September 9, 2009 Print 

Congressman Heller sent this letter to President Obama yesterday offering options to help bridge the gap between Republicans and Democrats on health care reform:

September 8, 2009

The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C., 20006

Dear Mr. President:

Yesterday, you said those critical of your healthcare plan were "trying to scare the American people and preserve the status quo." You rhetorically asked critics "what's your answer? What's your solution?" and asserted that "the truth is, they don't have one. It's do nothing." (Speech before the AFL-CIO, Cincinnati, Ohio, September 7, 2009)

As you may recall, I have written to you previously on the subject of healthcare. While I have yet to receive a response from the White House regarding my proposal that Members of Congress participate in the government-run plan proposed in H.R. 3200, I wanted to bring to your attention to the fact that many individual Republican Members of Congress have introduced their own unique bills reflecting the concerns and needs of their constituents as part of the healthcare debate.

For my part, I introduced the Steps Toward Access and Reform (STAR) Act (H.R. 3483) in late July. While this legislation will not be a "silver bullet" solution to all the problems facing our healthcare system, my bill addresses medical liability reform, improves access to breast and lung cancer screenings, and takes other important steps toward reform that I think most Americans would support. My legislation also addresses prescription drug reimportation -- an idea I support along with many of my Democrat colleagues.

I introduced some provisions of the STAR Act as amendments during the House Ways & Means Committee's consideration of H.R. 3200. Unfortunately, each of my amendments were defeated -- largely along party-line votes -- by the very individuals who continue to incorrectly label Republicans as the "party of no."

Mr. President, I respectfully urge you to take a look at the STAR Act and other Republican alternatives to H.R. 3200. Your leadership would encourage congressional Democrats to actually consider Republican ideas instead of voting no on amendments just because they were introduced by a Member on the other side of the aisle. I hope you will familiarize yourself with these proposals so our shared goal of a meaningful bipartisan dialogue on healthcare can be realized.

Sincerely,

Dean Heller
Member of Congress

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written by Ed Ferguson , September 10, 2009
Time to allow all insurance companies nation wide (1400+) compete in every state to add competition and help lower costs of medical insurance. Tort reform to reign in the ambulance chasers. Only public option is the identical plan that Obama chooses from.
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health care
written by christine gilbert , September 18, 2009
Thank you Dean Heller for stickening to your conservative roots. Please don't for the health care plan with public option. If we cannot have republican that stay with conservative and Ronald Reagan policy. Low taxes and more emphasis on capitalism. Thank you, Keep up the fight Very disappointing that it took alot of preasure for Sen John Ensign to finally speak up. I think today is the first time I heard Ensign say anything. I am not impressed he is smarter then that.
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written by BILL PEARCE , October 01, 2009
health care now,single payer or public option
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written by Tom Triplett , October 14, 2009
I'm 55 yrs old, worked construction for 30 yrs with no health insurance. I paid for all of the Dr. and hospital bills out of my own pocket as they came, while raising two children. When I turned 50 I went to work for a mine that had ins. That is when I discovered how the system works. Half of the people in the Dr. office didn't need to really be there, they were there for minor cuts or abrasions, cold or flu symtoms. All these things can be treated at home by an educated common sense person. These people run up insurance premiums for everybody. Insurance is nice if you can afford it, but not all people can. I believe that catastophic insurance is necessary for everyone. No one wants to lose everything they own or be in debt for the rest of their life. On the other hand I don't want to pay for ignorant peoples Dr. visits. The solution -- make a national nurse hot line 24/7, for people to call when they get hurt or sick. This was available with my ins.--- make catastrophic ins. mandatory to protect everyone from major medical bills, and let people pay as they go for regular visits. This is more affordable for everyone, and addresses the concerns we hear about in the health ins. debates. Having a public option for this type of ins. is fine. It would be smaller and cost much less. Please let me know what you think. Thank you, Tom Triplett
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National Debt
written by Jeff Reagor , February 01, 2010
I just took a brief look at the budget from the office of the president. Prior to that,I briefly looked at a OMB pie chart on discrenary and non-descrecenary spending.What this shows is that if you don't count military, social security,and medicare..it leaves a 18-20 percent that is left to cut(correct me if this inaccurate).After looking at the President's budget request,I would like to hear from you what specific programs would be targeted by you to reduce the budget.I've asked some of my local leaders and can't get a straight answer. A radio pundit stated that to serious attack the deficits cuts would have to be made to entitlement programs, That to me is a "code" word for cuts to social security/ medicare. If this is something that you are in favor of...I'd like to know.. I see no other cuts to make without doing so and that would have a substantial impact on the soon to be retired. I feel this is a National Security issue, security for the people of this country.This sounds like the privatization of SS/Medicare again. If this is the Republican Plan, then you might want to look at cutting military spending also to spread the pain.. I know thats taboo in some circles ,but what good is a national defense if one can't sustain life in their nation. I would like to know the specifics of the national republican plan on deficit reduction.On tax cuts, they sound nice but they have to be paid for also.How would they be paid for???? Thank you JReagor
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