Please Do Not Delay: Open Letter to Senator Snowe

Dear Senator Snowe,

We are writing to implore you to act swiftly and strongly in support of true health care reform for all Americans. This must include a strong public option to help bring down the cost of health care by offering an alternative to the monopolies held by private, for-profit insurance companies that exist in so many states.

We heard you say that there is no need to rush, that there is no problem with delaying a vote for two weeks. But Senator Snowe, we disagree. Two weeks can make a big difference, a life-and-death difference. Two weeks are enough time for cancer to begin to metastasize, for a simple infection to lead to septic shock, for intrauterine growth retardation to lead to fetal demise or serious illnesses in an infant.

Two weeks can make the difference between life and death.

Please do not delay.

Please support the public option.

Please pass true health care reform now.

Respectfully,

Julia M. Schwartz, M.D. and Robert D. Stolorow, Ph.D.

 

 

Comments

[sallyahoward]

10:35 PM on 09/29/2009

Right on Dr. Schwartz and Stolorow! Every moment counts.

Elie Wiesel:

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference.
And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.

(Oct. 1986)

[sviolette]

12:16 AM on 09/27/2009

Don't expect Snowe to vote for healthcare insurance reform. Her largest contributer is the healthcare industry. She will follow the republicans to the end on this bill. I have spoken to her face to face and she stood there and lied about the bill and said point blank that she would not vote for a public option or single payer. She not only isn't listening she won't even acknowledge that you said anything. I live in Maine and have seen her in action for a very long time.

[davism97]

08:23 PM on 09/25/2009

It's disappointing that the focus is on single payer health care and not universal health care. When are we ever going to catch up with the rest of the civilized world on health care?

[c2morow]

07:12 PM on 09/27/2009

Absolutely agree with you on this. To me, it is a no brainer. Why would a world power, like America, be so far behind in providing a very basic neccesity to its under priviliged and poor citizens. It does nothing but make us look like a 3rd world country to the rest of the world. I am not naive to the fact that a universal or health care plan is subject to abuses by those who just do not want to take the initiative to work or be productive members of society, however, that number is very small compared to the number of people who just can not afford it.

Fanned...

[spinmas]

08:14 PM on 09/25/2009

tone deaf..I am sure he is getting bombared with calls from people like me who need that extended benefit money..the health care bill won't take effect until 2113 or 2014, like bill Marher says, get things done that matter today , not down the road, everything passed starts years later, we have fools governing us..

[spinmas]

08:12 PM on 09/25/2009

I don't have a problem waiting two more weeks, they need to dot the i's and cross the t's we don't need a bill like microsofts windows program, so many people have built it and gone and others ading to it they don't know what it is and constantly needs patches...Reid needs to call a vote for extended benefits, the house has passed it overwhelmingly..Reid is weak and ton deaf!!

[DwaynesJoy]

07:56 PM on 09/29/2009

Look I live in Nevada. If Reid doesn't vote for the Public Option I for one will be voting him out of office. I have contacted him numerous times on this matter. If he keeps turning a deaf ear on all of us he will be gone. What side is he on anyway. Has he forgotten FOR THE PEOPLE AND BY THE PEOPLE? NOT FOR THE GOVERNMENT BY THE GOVERNMENT? I am sure after all that is said and done we will be getting rid of the bad seeds that do not listen to the constituents that have voted them in to begin with. It isn't want the politicians want it is what the people want. Do our way or your out. Need I say it any stronger than that?

[fairwitness]

07:51 PM on 09/25/2009

She's not listening--she's my senator; I've contacted her dozens of times to try to get her to realize the inhumane and destructive direction the Republican Party has taken since 2000, and I can say that she definitely isn't listening. Despite her carefully-constructed "centrist" and "moderate" appearance, she stood behind and enabled George Bush in every crime (especially those having to do with torture and intelligence abuses) he and his cronies indulged in for eight long years and she is simply another power-hungry, money-chasing, corporate tool, demagogue-ing Republican who happens to be of the female gender.

It is testimony to the skillfulness of her deceptions, the weak Democratic candidate and the impaired perceptiveness of the people of Maine that she wasn't thrown out last fall. Snowe now has the luxury of 6 more years to actively obstruct and delay everything a strong Democratic majority wants to do for the people.

Don't expect her to hear you--she isn't listening.

[c2morow]

07:15 PM on 09/27/2009

Unfortunately this is true across the board. Anytime I send a comment to my Senators or Rep., all I get is a form letter thanking me for my comment and appreciating my concerns. It is very frustrating considering the fact that they work for US.

[DwaynesJoy]

07:57 PM on 09/29/2009

I'll second that motion.