Healthcare for the Poor Uninsured

Dear Friends:



I have a few simple questions about health care, maybe you can help me.



If Medicaid is the government program designed to provide health care for the poor and if the government has confessed that they have failed (as of this date) to sign up eight million uninsured poor individuals who currently qualify for Medicaid, why do these (poor) individuals need health insurance when they already have a government system to cover them (and others who may become poor)? If the government can't sign these individuals up for Medicaid, how will they ever sign them up for insurance? And if they were able to sign them up for insurance, where will the poor get the money to pay for the insurance? Will the poor have both insurance and Medicaid? Why would they need both?



It is the poor that goes to the emergency room for medical services and this includes those persons on Medicaid. With the poor, it makes no difference whether they have insurance or not, they are not going to wait for an appointment to see a doctor when they can go to emergency room to get the same care immediately, so where are the cost savings?



The facts show that most of the people who are un-insured are poor and since we already have the Medicaid system to help the poor, Medicare to help the senior citizens and Veteran hospitals to help the veterans, why do we need to pass a massive health care reform program to cover the un-insured poor? We already have systems in place to help them. Just make it mandatory for all employees who are not classified as the working class poor - pay for their own health insurance through payroll deduction. The problem is solved.



As far as the issue of high premiums are concern, pass tort reform legislation and allow insurance companies to compete across state lines and tell the insurance companies that they must cover pre-conditions. That settles costs.



We do not need 1017 pages of legislation to do this - nor do we need another multi-billion dollar government bureaucracy to monitor health care. Who are they trying to fool? Someone should ask Congress these same questions. Go ahead. I dare you to send this e-mail to them (smile).



Rev. Wayne Perryman