Out of debt?!

Senator Merkley,

I really appreciate your response as well as the challenges you, as a representative of our beautiful state, are now facing. I agree that changes need to be made, I just don't agree one whit with the Obama administration's solutions. Not only did the CBO say that it would be MUCH more expensive than originally "thought", (I tend to believe that Obama and co. couldn't care less about the cost of anything these days) but I don't like the idea that the Government wants to "compete" in the healthcare business.

We live in a society racked with debt. You quoted the fact that many go bankrupt due to medical costs. I don't doubt this, but I DO doubt that many of these people couldn't afford better insurance if they (myself included) cut back on unnecessary costs. Without pigeon-holing anyone and grouping EVERYONE together, our country has to learn to go without. Without the x-box, without the newer car, without the flat screen t.v., without eating out on a regular basis. There are many things we could go without yet we don't. We buy all the things we want, much of the time on credit, then only leave aside a measly amount for the really important things cause we can get cheap insurance. The difference between $60.00/month insurance and $150.00/month insurance could mean walking or riding a bike to work two or three times per week, or eating out once a month instead of 3 times, Or NOT buying the flatscreen. At the same time, it could be the difference between actually having your insurance cover an unexpected illness or not covering it.

Obviously this doesn't cover everyone. That is why in an earlier letter I wrote to you I gave you some suggestions that would make insurance MORE affordable without raising our already incredibly high taxes, and without putting us deeper and deeper in debt.

Here is a part of said letter:

If you want to make a difference, start with the McCarran-Ferguson exemption that permits insurance companies to engage in behavior not permitted to other industries by antitrust law, forming giant conglomerates to fix prices that make it impossible for competitors to enter the marketplace. End Medicare price controls, allowing physicians and patients to negotiate prices, cutting out the pricey middleman insurance companies. Stop tax discrimination against individually owned sickness insurance and allow individuals to purchase sickness insurance across state borders to avoid costly mandates by states. Lastly, expand health savings accounts by removing barriers so that Americans are able to pay for medical bills with before tax money. Lastly, stop blaming the “free-market” for the mess we are in. We haven’t really had a free market for almost a century. Expanding government control and ability to regulate a private industry never helped anyone.

I don't debate that we need to help our fellow citizens out, but when government forces something, does that really help? Is government really the answer? I DO debat that. (See the $700,000+ spent on the Social Security Agency's "stress relief" retreat, footed by taxpayers). I believe that the way for this country to get back on firm footing is trusting in the people who's blood, sweat and tears make her great. I believe that our purpose for being blessed enough to be in this country is to give us the choices that make us better people. Government forced handouts defeats this purpose, and besides this, there are billions of dollars being wasted each year by governmental agencies.

Samuel Adams once said, "The Utopian Schemes of leveling and a community of goodsare as visionary and impractical as those which vest all property in the Crown. They are arbitrary, despotic, and, in our government, unconstitutional." We cannot afford to go into more debt. President Obama's tells us we only have two choices, his change or no change. This is simply not true. There are many viable options that will lead this country out of the mess, not deeper into it.

Thank you again for your time, and I apologize for the length of this letter.

Carden Gambee