To the editor:
I read with interest (and amazement) the remarks made by Indiana Dist. 9 Rep. Trey Hollingsworth during the Chamber of Commerce luncheon held Aug. 15 at the Ellettsville Town Hall. His remarks were at best, misleading, and at worst, inaccurate.
When my husband and I owned a small furniture store, we saw firsthand the struggle our employees had to go through to access any health care at all. Many small businesses in our community routinely have jars on sales counters to collect money for someone, even children, who have the misfortune of becoming ill. Jars put there by parents who had recently lost their job (and so their health insurance), house, or went bankrupt due to medical bills. I become angry when I see free one-day dental clinics pop up and people line up all night before to make sure they get to see a dentist, who will most assuredly extract their painful tooth or infection. In many cases, if they would have received preventive dental care, they wouldn’t be in that condition.
Representative Hollingsworth said that Medicare for All will cost $32 trillion. What he neglected to say is that even by the most conservative estimate, Medicare for All will save $5 trillion over the projected $37 trillion cost of the current system. Does Medicare for All cost money? Of course it does! We can pay for Medicare for All with its expanded benefits of dental, vision, hearing, long-term care and more, for every person living in this country, with what we are currently putting into the system.
Medicare for All is a commonsense, single-payer health care payment mechanism that puts healthcare decision making back where it belongs: that is, between me and my doctor, not between my doctor and a for-profit health insurance company. The (AMA) American Medical Association recognized this because they recently pulled their support from the for-profit health and pharma industry coalition, Partnership for America’s Healthcare Future.
It is a myth that people want choice of health care plans; people want prevention and early detection services. People want health care and medication when they need it.
Rep. Hollingsworth is on record as not supporting Medicare for All. It’s no wonder, when his top donor for the 2019-2020 election cycle ($68,000) is the private health insurance industry, according to opensecrets.org.
We need to find a representative that does support the businesses and people of Indiana District 9. Someone who supports health care for all and not the big money interests.
Sincerely,
Paula Staley, Curly Shingles Road
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