NJ Congressman wants your ideas on healthcare

[tabbycat31]

cross posted in GD.

the author of the SCHIP bill that just went into effect earlier this month (sorry smokers) is currently seeking ideas on healthcare.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/4/14/719986/-Fixing-a-Broken-Health-Care-System

I am not sure if he's soliciting ideas from outside of his district, but I would try anyways. If you want a NJ zipcode in his district, PM me and I can give you mine. If you are in his district (I believe there's a few on DU here that are)

You can submit your ideas to him here.
http://www.pallonefornewjersey.com/healthcenter-ideas.php

Here is my letter to him

Dear Congressman Pallone--
As your constituent, I applaud the work that you have done to expand healthcare for New Jersey and America's children. I hope that you are able to exapand this coverage to the rest of the United States population.

The key to making healthcare succeed is to get the profit motive out of healthcare. When a company exists to make a profit, its first goal is to make a profit and pay dividends to the shareholders, not to provide a service to their customers. In addition, every time I see or hear an advertisment for a hospital, insurance company, or pharmaceutical drug, I think of how much is spent making and producing the ad, and how the money could have been used to expand care instead.

The second issue in healthcare is to expand wellness coverage instead of just the "sick care" that we have. If people are regularly seen by a doctor, medical problems can be diagnosed earlier and treated or cured much easier than a late diagnosis. In addition to regular preventitive medicine, I think that wellness programs, such as fitness and nutrition, need to be emphasized more.

Currently there is a bill in Congress, HR 676, sponsored by John Conyers and Dennis Kucinich that would move the United States to a single-payer healthcare system, like much of the rest of the industrialized world is already using. I urge you to support and sign onto this bill as a co-sponsor.

If you find it to support this bill, you would make a difference not only in the lives of your consituents (many like myself without health insurance) and Americans all over the country, but you would also help to bring jobs back to the Untied States as companies would no longer be concerned about paying for the healthcare of their employees.

I am one of your consituents, and what I would call your "base." This fall, I volunteered out of your Long Branch office to canvass and phone bank for you and President Obama. By co-sponsoring HR 676 not only would I once again campaign for you in the 2010 elections, but it would ensure that you would also get my support financially.

Sincerely,
Caroline B. Lastname