Quote of the Day: "The coming debate is not just about the freedom to
make one's own medical decisions. It is about life and death. If we
insist on a dynamic and competitive market, health care will be
better, cheaper, safer, and more secure. If we go in the direction of
new government programs, mandates, and price controls, we will see
higher costs, more medical errors, more uncoordinated care, and more
lives lost because people with government "insurance" nevertheless
couldn't find a doctor who would treat them." -- Michael F. Cannon,
Director of Health-policy Studies at the Cato Institute

Subject: You'll regret it for the rest of your shortened life

Be ready, Congress plans to rush through a complete overhaul of YOUR
health care this summer.

You can bet this so-called reform bill will...

* Be long, complicated, and packed with special interest favors
* Have massive consequences, both intended and unintended
* Add hundreds of billions of dollars to our already cancerous
national liabilities

You can also bet that...

* More of your health care decisions will be dictated by bureaucrats,
in a desperate attempt to control costs
* Almost no member of Congress will read the bill, or really understand it
* Any problems the bill creates will last for decades, and perhaps forever

Even so, many Americans want Congress to act, and it's easy to see
why. Millions of people...

* Fear losing their health insurance if they lose their jobs
* Don't have health insurance through their employers and find it too
expensive to buy as an individual
* Face bankruptcy if they have an expensive illness
* Find it hard to see a doctor, and are dissatisfied with the
experience when they do see one

Doctors too are dissatisfied, and they're quitting in droves. The
resulting overflow of patients is flooding into hospital ERs,
straining them to the breaking point. These problems make people feel
desperate, and eager to believe political promises. But if they do...

They'll regret it for the rest of their shortened lives.

We can know this because the proposed reforms further destroy the free
market, just like earlier government policies that created the current
problem. Think about it...

Health insurance is tied to employment because the politicians created
tax policies that make it that way.

Health insurance is too expensive in part because state politicians
impose special-interest mandates that price many people out of the
market.

Health care costs too much because most of it is paid for by Medicare
and Medicaid, or through tax-incentivized insurance that covers the
medical equivalent of oil changes.

People find it unsatisfying to see a doctor because the politicians
have created a system where your doctor works for the government, or
for the insurance companies, and NOT FOR YOU.

Primary care doctors are quitting because Medicare and Medicaid pay
too much for specialists, and too little for primary care.

The free market isn't the problem, it's the solution. The problem is
the politicians, and the solution to them is YOU.

We need to fight the politicians' anti-market schemes with everything
we've got. Some of this will involve specific campaigns, but to give
ourselves flexibility, we've also created a generic campaign that
we'll use today.

Tell your Congressional employees to reduce rather than increase
government involvement in health care.

secure.downsizedc.org/etp/campaigns/114

Use your personal comments to tell them that government created the
health care crisis by destroying the free market. Mention tax policies
that tie health insurance to employment, state mandates that make
health insurance too expensive, and price distortions caused by
Medicare and Medicaid.

To exceed the 36,512 messages we sent last month we need to send at
least 1,715 messages today.

Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC Army. To see how
we're growing, check out the Keeping Score report below my signature.

Perry Willis
Communications Director
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.