Private insurance of health care is result of WWII era accident

To the editor,

An open letter to Congressman Frank Guinta:

I was dismayed to receive a glossy, shallow promotion piece, and even more dismayed to note that this publication was paid for by my tax dollars. I would expect from my representative a more thoughtful and thorough analysis of the issues. Here are a few items that require serious consideration.

Reducing the deficit, and the national debt, is indeed a vital priority if our nation is to survive. But to take military spending off the table is simply irresponsible. You are too young to recall, but I’m sure you are aware of, President Eisenhower’s warning a half-century ago to beware the military-industrial complex. The country has ignored that warning, and as a result become mired in reliance on a group of industries supported by taxpayer dollars that has armed the world, including our adversaries, and produced a dependency on those industries. New Hampshire is no exception – consider BAE systems, for example, and the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard to mention only two big ones. (Perhaps they are among your major contributors?)

Where was the hysteria over the debt when the previous administration was cutting taxes on the rich and running around the world starting wars “on the cuff”? Indeed, that administration inherited a surplus in the budget which it promptly squandered. At the same time Wall Street was running amuck with unregulated speculation, to the detriment of homeowners and taxpayers nation wide, running the country into the worst recession since the 1930s and requiring bail-outs at taxpayers expense.

The proposal to “save Medicare” dumps future seniors into the tender arms of the private insurance industry. Medical costs have exploded! That industry has created massive overhead for themselves and likewise burdening providers, while lining the pockets of its executives with multi-million dollar salaries and benefits. The insurer decides which doctor(s) you may see, which hospitals you may use, and even what treatment they will allow. Indeed, as a Medicare recipient, a reward of turning 65 was to escape the clutches of the private insurance industry.

Private insurance of health care is the result of an accident of history during World War II. We are stuck with it to some extent, but that is no reason to expand it forever.

It’s time to completely revise and simplify the tax code, to remove tax subsidies for all kinds of business – oil, coal, ethanol, etc. etc. Recognize that tax breaks for favored industries are in fact tax expenditures and must be considered as such. Politicians say renewables should compete based on the market, but the market is skewed with support from the taxpayers for so-called “traditional” energy sources, nuclear included..On Social Security: consider, for example, that while the very wealthy get tax breaks, and pay FICA and Medicare on a very small portion of their income, a struggling entrepreneur pays 15-percent FICA on top of whatever his income tax liability might be. An obvious fix for Social Security is to raise the income limit on which FICA is assessed, while capping benefits for those whose resources already allow for comfortable retirement.

Please, don’t ask me to pay for more puff pieces. Release yourself from the shackles of the tea party or other ideologues, and do some independent analysis for yourself. We need Congress people who will come up with real solutions. Not just more slogans.

Carolyn W. Baldwin

Gilmanton