Quote of the Day: “A political leader must keep looking over his shoulder all the time to see if the boys are still there. If they aren’t still there, he’s no longer a political leader.” — Bernard Baruch
Editorial comment: What our so-called political leaders need most is leadership from us, their supposed followers.
Subject: Ask Representative Shadegg and Senator DeMint to reintroduce (and improve!) their health insurance bills
Last Thursday we started asking Congress to enable Americans to buy health insurance regulated by states other than the one in which they live. Doing this would make health insurance instantly affordable for millions of people. Remember, some states make health insurance vastly more expensive by mandating things like…
* Maternity care for single males
* Infertility treatments for people who don’t want families
* Alcoholism therapy for people who don’t drink
Congress could give millions of people the freedom to sidestep these kinds of state regulations. Now here’s what we didn’t tell you last week…
Representative John Shadegg and Senator Jim DeMint both introduced bills in the last Congress that would have enacted this reform. But…
Both bills lacked a key ingredient. They only gave individual consumers the right to shop for health coverage regulated by states other than their own. This isn’t enough. Employers need this ability too.
And there’s one more bit of bad news. Neither bill has been re-introduced in this Congress. We think the Downsize DC Army can fix both of these problems. Here’s what we need to do . . .
Send your Congressional employees another message on DownsizeDC.org’s new health insurance campaign.
Use your personal comments to tell your Congressional employees that…
* Representative Shadegg and Senator DeMint introduced legislation on this in the previous Congress.
* Ask your Representative and your two Senators to contact Shadegg and DeMint to request that they reintroduce their inter-state health insurance legislation.
* Tell your Congressional employees to ask Shadegg and DeMint to also improve their legislation by giving employers the same ability to buy health insurance regulated by other states.
Now, if you happen to be represented by either Mr. Shadegg (Arizona) or Mr. DeMint (South Carolina), something different and powerful is needed… Call them!
* Here are their phone numbers. Shadegg: 202-225-3361 DeMint: 202-224-6121
* Tell the staffer who answers that you are a constituent and that you support legislation Shadegg or DeMint introduced in the previous Congress that would have permitted consumers to buy health insurance regulated by a state other than their own. Then say that you’d like to get the answer to two questions . . .
* Would Shadegg or DeMint be willing to re-introduce the legislation in this Congress, and…
* Would they be willing to improve the legislation by giving employers the same ability
* Tell the staffer that you’d like to call back tomorrow to learn the answer to those two questions
Then, send us a message telling us that you made the call and that you’ll be calling back tomorrow to get your answers. Ideally, send those message to feedback@DownsizeDC.org.
Clearly, Mr. Shadegg and Mr. DeMint like this idea for reform, or they wouldn’t have introduced this legislation in the last Congress. They may only need a little encouragement from you to re-introduce their bills in this Congress. This is one case where just a little effort could bring a big result. Let’s make it happen.
Our goal this month is to pound Congress with more than 31,730 messages. That means we must hit Congress with 1,398 messages today. Send your message at DownsizeDC.org’s Make Health Insurance More Affordable campaign.
Please also help us spread the word and grow the Downsize DC Army by “Digging” this message at our blog.
Jim Babka, President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.