AN OPEN LETTER TO MY YOUNG AND BRAVE US CONGRESSMAN
14 September 2007
Congressman Patrick J. Murphy
Congress of the United States
House of Representatives
Eight Congressional District, Pa
Washington, DC 20515
Honorable Congressman Murphy;
Thank you for your letter of 6 September 2007 on the matter of US health care reform which in my opinion is the domestic issue that will elect our next president.
I am extremely proud to be a constituent of your district in that, as a freshman Congressman, you took the lead in the most important foreign policy issue of our times – the failed war in Iraq. This took enormous courage on your part and I am very grateful for that.
Now it is time for you to step up to the plate and fight for universal health care.
I must disagree with your statement that “presently a functional and affordable universal single payer system is many years away” as you say in your letter to me. We are in far too much trouble for more incrementalism.
While I admire and thank you for your vote for HR 3162 which will expand health care coverage to our nation’s children under SCHIP, I respectfully offer to you that this is not nearly enough.
Congressman Murphy- You may know that David Walker, head of our Government Accountability Office (GAO) is stating correctly that we are facing an economic “tsunami” in Medicare for example unless we act now.
I have posited for over ten years now that the only way out of our nation’s health care crisis is both individual and institutional prevention, which you did not reference in your letter to me.
Congressman- I urge you to support a variety of introduced legislation whose goals are to pass into law a requirement for more prevention.
For example my colleagues at Health Promotion Advocates have long supported at least two pieces of legislation that enhances prevention at the workplace and increases funding for health promotion research.
Furthermore, there currently exist legislative initiatives for much more prevention in Medicare programs
And we must have institutional prevention like healthy environments, healthy schools and healthy workplaces. (It is not just about individual health behaviors like smoking, inactivity, alcohol and drug and medication abuse etc.)
In 1995 I published my own #8 point health care plan I called “Grow Up America” which I slightly modified after 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. Then First Lady (now Senator) Hillary Clinton liked my plan. I attach my plan with this letter for your and your staff’s consideration.
Every one of the eight points I recommend either has or could have legislation built around it.
Dr. Elias Zerhouni, head of our nation’s prestigious National Institute of Health (NIH) stated that our high technology expensive US “disease care system” is simply not economically sustainable in our nation (and for that matter in other nations). Dr Zerhouni is correct. We need a true health care system based on prevention.
Congressman-I know you have an interest in stem cell research as I do, but this is not the answer either. The projections for success in this arena, unlike prevention, are indeed decades away if we ever see them at all.
Individual and intuitional prevention can save us from one third to a staggering one half of our #2 trillion dollar plus (17% of GNP) plus US healthcare expenditure which if not managed soon is a direct threat to our nations economy and our national security.
Prevention- fairly and ethically implemented- will save us from economic catastrophe and it will divert dollars to those who suffer from non-preventable diseases.
Congressman- having met a key member of your staff I am very pleased to work with her, other members of your staff, and/or meet with you personally in your Doylestown,Pa or DC office to solicit your support for prevention based legislation.
Please accept my sincere best wishes for continued success and for good health for you and your family
Sincerely,
Dr. Rick Lippin
Southampton, Pa
cc-
David Walker- GAO
Elias Zerhouni- NIH
Sen. Hillary Clinton
Sen. Barack Obama
Sen. Christopher Dodd
Former Sen. John Edwards
Cong. Dennis Kucinich
Sen. Arlen Specter
Sen. Robert Casey
Gov. Ed Rendell
Michael O’Donnell -HPA
Maybe you could write a similiar letter to your Congressperson?
Comments welcome
Rick Lippin
"Blake"
Congressman Patrick J. Murphy
Congress of the United States
House of Representatives
Eight Congressional District, Pa
Washington, DC 20515
Honorable Congressman Murphy;
Thank you for your letter of 6 September 2007 on the matter of US health care reform which in my opinion is the domestic issue that will elect our next president.
I am extremely proud to be a constituent of your district in that, as a freshman Congressman, you took the lead in the most important foreign policy issue of our times – the failed war in Iraq. This took enormous courage on your part and I am very grateful for that.
Now it is time for you to step up to the plate and fight for universal health care.
I must disagree with your statement that “presently a functional and affordable universal single payer system is many years away” as you say in your letter to me. We are in far too much trouble for more incrementalism.
While I admire and thank you for your vote for HR 3162 which will expand health care coverage to our nation’s children under SCHIP, I respectfully offer to you that this is not nearly enough.
Congressman Murphy- You may know that David Walker, head of our Government Accountability Office (GAO) is stating correctly that we are facing an economic “tsunami” in Medicare for example unless we act now.
I have posited for over ten years now that the only way out of our nation’s health care crisis is both individual and institutional prevention, which you did not reference in your letter to me.
Congressman- I urge you to support a variety of introduced legislation whose goals are to pass into law a requirement for more prevention.
For example my colleagues at Health Promotion Advocates have long supported at least two pieces of legislation that enhances prevention at the workplace and increases funding for health promotion research.
Furthermore, there currently exist legislative initiatives for much more prevention in Medicare programs
And we must have institutional prevention like healthy environments, healthy schools and healthy workplaces. (It is not just about individual health behaviors like smoking, inactivity, alcohol and drug and medication abuse etc.)
In 1995 I published my own #8 point health care plan I called “Grow Up America” which I slightly modified after 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. Then First Lady (now Senator) Hillary Clinton liked my plan. I attach my plan with this letter for your and your staff’s consideration.
Every one of the eight points I recommend either has or could have legislation built around it.
Dr. Elias Zerhouni, head of our nation’s prestigious National Institute of Health (NIH) stated that our high technology expensive US “disease care system” is simply not economically sustainable in our nation (and for that matter in other nations). Dr Zerhouni is correct. We need a true health care system based on prevention.
Congressman-I know you have an interest in stem cell research as I do, but this is not the answer either. The projections for success in this arena, unlike prevention, are indeed decades away if we ever see them at all.
Individual and intuitional prevention can save us from one third to a staggering one half of our #2 trillion dollar plus (17% of GNP) plus US healthcare expenditure which if not managed soon is a direct threat to our nations economy and our national security.
Prevention- fairly and ethically implemented- will save us from economic catastrophe and it will divert dollars to those who suffer from non-preventable diseases.
Congressman- having met a key member of your staff I am very pleased to work with her, other members of your staff, and/or meet with you personally in your Doylestown,Pa or DC office to solicit your support for prevention based legislation.
Please accept my sincere best wishes for continued success and for good health for you and your family
Sincerely,
Dr. Rick Lippin
Southampton, Pa
cc-
David Walker- GAO
Elias Zerhouni- NIH
Sen. Hillary Clinton
Sen. Barack Obama
Sen. Christopher Dodd
Former Sen. John Edwards
Cong. Dennis Kucinich
Sen. Arlen Specter
Sen. Robert Casey
Gov. Ed Rendell
Michael O’Donnell -HPA
Maybe you could write a similiar letter to your Congressperson?
Comments welcome
Rick Lippin
"Blake"
posted by Blake at 6:42 AM
3 Comments:
I'm an RN, and have been for many years. Having been a hands-on health care provider for a majority of my life, I've seen first-hand the things of which Dr. Lippin speaks. Of all the pressing issues this nation faces--and there are a number that come to mind--health care will eventually surpass them all. I would sacrifice my own livelihood, gladly, to see a single payer system implemented in this country, and the role of the filthy, criminal, profit-motivated "insurance" companies completely erased. Perhaps I've lived long enough and seen too much to believe that in our reactionary United States this will happen. Those who favor a single payer system are smeared as socialists or communists (how about humanist??). Nonetheless, it is the good fight, and Dr. Lippin is a good soldier, a good man, for devoting the passion he does to this issue. Just ask yourself this: if you don't get a basic education, which our nation, by the way, provides for you, do you die? Probably not. But if you don't get health care, which, by the way, is left to the discretion of profit driven companies, do you die? Many will, and many do.
Thxs Dave - I hope you comment here often
I think we are FINALLY going to see some real change
Long overdue
Rick Lippin
read Vince Flynn's book, 'Term Limits'
best to kill most of them and start over as in 1776 as per Thomas Jefferson
this country is a joke!
tropicooltours.com for dental and medical in El Salvador at lot less money for those w/o insurance
here big Pharma rules and are also the biggest drug dealers
and corps such as Coca Cola keep usa people fat and in poor health
eat more fish! also beef chicken pork will kill you, or what they get feed
wake up sheeples
time for real revolution
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