Thank you.
Susan Bonner
susan@visualpump.com
450-5148

Senator Carl Levin
Russell Senate Office Building, Room SR-269
Washington, D.C. 20510-2202

Dear Sir:

We are writing to express our opposition to the pending health reform legislation.

We do recommend the following:

1. Tort reform to stop the burden of frivolous lawsuits against health care providers and institutions.
2. Allow more health care competition interstate
3. Require health care insurers to ignore pre-existing conditions
4. Provide health care insurance for those under-employed or unemployed. The Cobra option is simply too expensive for folks who have lost their jobs.
5. If, as congress has soften stated, there is so much fraud in the Medicare system, hire thousands of unemployed accountants to investigate the alleged fraud so as to recover fraudulent claim money. This would, according to Congress, free up billions of dollars to assist those folks in 4. above.
6. Make certain illegal immigrants, of which there are estimates of some 10 to 12 million, have no access to our health care system.
7. Fix the illegal crossing of our borders. Illegal immigrants are a huge burden on state health care costs and this needs to be fixed, once and for all.

A 2,000 page bill to “reform” our health care system is nonsense. The system is the best in the world and in and of itself does not need “reform” but the issues mentioned above do need fixing and we urge you and your colleagues to address these specifics.

We hope that you will agree with us. We need less government intrusion in our lives. The options being considered to levy some surcharge or penalty against small business that cannot afford to provide health care for their employees is an example of more unnecessary government power and control. Small business is the greatest hiring engine in America today. Let’s not kill this. Congress opened the doors to world trade that resulted in millions of lost jobs as companies sent their production offshore. Perhaps it is time to provide tax incentives to encourage them to bring these jobs back to our shores.

We cannot afford to burden the taxpayers with a health reform bill that will burden us and our children and grandchildren with a trillion dollars. With the debt levels continually rising due to the stimulus and bailout monies being spent by Congress, we are heading for a massive collapse of our financial system. We simply CANNOT afford more of the same. Please, for the sake of our people and the health (no pun intended) of our nation’s economy, stop, take a deep breath, and reconsider what you folks are doing.

Sincerely yours,

J. Stephen Kennedy
6039 Ravine Ct
Clarkston, MI 48348

CC: President Barack Obama