We are writing to congratulate you on the recent passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. We sincerely appreciate your dedication to this legislation and your work to ensure its passage. We understand your belief that many political compromises were needed in order to pass this legislation, however, we feel that political pressure got in the way of comprehensive, effective reform. Although we recognize that this law is a step in the right direction by (for example) eliminating exclusion based on preexisting conditions and expanding Medicaid coverage to include a greater portion of uninsured Americans, we do not believe that it goes far enough in fixing the major problems of our health care system.

While the legislation will increase the number of Americans able to access health insurance, it will still leave millions uninsured and under-insured. Although the legislation makes efforts to make insurance more accessible for struggling Americans, health insurance will nonetheless remain insufficient and financially burdensome for many middle- and working-class families.

By allowing insurance companies to remain at the center of our health insurance system this legislation is at best an effort to push off real reform for another decade or more. The interests of the health insurance industry do not, and will not, coincide with the interests of the American public. As long as profit continues to guide our system of health care coverage hundreds of thousands will remain uninsured, our tax-dollars will be spent wastefully, insurance packages will remain piecemeal and incoherent, and essential treatments will continue to be tied up by expensive bureaucratic paperwork.

We need a system that works to benefit all Americans and our nation’s future. We simply cannot afford to continue subsidizing big business health insurance, sacrificing our nation’s long-term economic health for the sake of individual business interests.

We hope that you will recognize that this legislation is an honorable milestone in what will be a long struggle to create a system of health insurance that truly works for all of us. We wholly appreciate your work up to this point, but hope that you realize this fight is far from over.

Sincerely,

Ruth Schultz, 50311

mIRIAM CUTELIS, 20008

Kavita Hardy, 19139

Daniel Symonds, 07040

Melissa Scurry, 19050

Marina Isakowitz, 19143

Emily Brown, 02446

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Alex Knight, 19454

Joyce McGilvery, 29575

Andrew Martini, 11222

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Tim Bernath-Plaisted, 48848

Barbara Nilenders, 19006

Aspen Bernath-Plaisted, 48848

Louis C Martini, 19118

Joan M Martini, 19118

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Richard Bruno, 97239

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Shandra Bernath-Plaisted, 19143

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Maurice Weeks, 19143