Sherry Allen – 12/31/09

This page was last updated on December 31, 2009.

Keep pushing for a public option; Sherry Allen; Beaver County Times; December 31, 2009.

Ms. Allen wrote three previous letters I didn’t critique. One (“Conserving water for future,” 1/13/08) asked us to conserve water (primarily by not eating meat) and another (“Say ‘no’ to push polling,” 2/10/08) complained about alleged telephone “push polls” by Republicans, and the third was (“Plant a garden to offset oil usage,” 8/1/08). In one letter I did critique, Ms. Allen gushed about a book she found “that has hundreds of ideas on how to save our planet.” In a partisan letter, Ms. Allen concluded with “Let’s endeavor to walk together peacefully.” In one letter, Ms. Allen related a story of disaffected Republicans voting for Mr. Obama. In another letter, Ms. Allen tried to compare abortion and war in an effort to promote Barack Obama over John McCain. Other letters from Ms. Allen were entitled “Let’s be proactive on the environment,” “Arena a valuable community asset,” “Time to get behind health-care reform,” and “A state budget we can all live with.”

Below is a detailed critique of the letter.

“I appreciated Ann Stanton’s Sunday letter ‘Insurance industry failed on health care.’

“I was one of the 1,100 who sent a note with her sister that was delivered in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 17.

“I appealed on behalf of a local friend who’s in the record books for having survived with his illness the longest. His friends and I were horrified last March when his insurance company refused to pay for any more of the weekly injections that have kept him alive.”

[RWC] Note Ms. Allen didn’t provide any details. Ms. Allen also failed to note that according to the AMA, Medicare rejects a higher percentage of claims than any private healthcare insurance company. In all but a few cases, the Medicare refusal rate is more than twice that of the individual companies in the survey. Makes you wonder why the AMA supports government-run medical insurance programs, doesn’t it?

“Sadly, this health-care bill isn’t HR-676, which was written by doctors. It’s been picked apart, but it can be fixed.”

[RWC] H.R. 676 was written by lawyers, not doctors.

“One woman said while standing in her house that was being renovated, ‘You can’t have progress without creating a mess.’

“Remember, illness shows no partiality.

“It’s not too late to write about your experiences to U.S. Rep. Jason Altmire and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey and ask for a public option.”

[RWC] Please read my paper entitled “Healthcare.”