Message of the Week, September 22, 2010: Example Op Ed Using Tested Messaging
Health Care Law Meeting the Needs of Our Community
Bekky was diagnosed with breast cancer. After three months of treatment, she returned to work but found that her employer, hit by high premium increases, had dropped her coverage. Since then, she has been turned down for individual coverage and has huge out of pocket expenses for care. She is in debt and worried about her health and her finances.
We all want Bekky to get the care she needs, get rid of the insurance rules that keep her from getting the care she needs, want prevention to be available to all people – seniors, children and all in between, and want Bekky's employer, a small business, to do what most employers want – purchase affordable insurance for its employees.
(Washingtonians/other locales) have been very consistent on the need to improve our health care. In April of 2009, polls showed we wanted affordable health care, limits on insurance company practices such as pre-existing condition limits and lifetime caps, preventive care, and help for small businesses. In September of 2010, we want and need the same.
The recently passed health care law is a moderate plan with most of its provisions previously sponsored and promoted by liberals, moderates and conservatives. It does take care of Bekky and her employer and does what we want – gets rid of insurance practices that exclude sick people, makes sure public and private insurers cover preventive services, and helps small businesses.
So, why are so many people ambivalent about the new law?
It would not be a stretch to say there are people who are using this as a political football. A quick fact check may give some perspective:
'Makes people buy unaffordable insurance' – not true, everyone does have to take personal responsibility and pay for their own insurance so you and I don't have to pay for them, but there are credits for low income working families so if they don't have employer sponsored coverage, insurance is affordable.
'It's going to raise our taxes' – not true - it will raise taxes for people with incomes of more than $200,000 for an individual/$250,000 for a family. I will never get to that level – will you? If I do, I would be happy to pay a small additional tax to make sure my children grow up in a community that values them and makes sure they are healthy and not excluded because they have a congenital heart condition.
'Going to increase deficit' – not true – in fact, repealing it will increase the deficit by $455 billion over the next ten years (according to the Congressional Budget Office – CBO – the non-partisan group that does the official scoring of proposals for all bills in Congress).
The premium increases we are seeing now in health insurance are the result of the current health insurance system. Without the changes included in this law, we will never start solving this problem.
The people who passed this law did the right thing. The people sniping at this are playing loose with the facts and politics with our health.
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