Dear President Obama and Speaker Boehner,
I know a little bit about the importance of funding for health research, training and care. Boston is home to the #1 medical school in the country and the #1 hospital in the country. Researchers in Boston earn more NIH support than in any other city. Health care companies and institutions employ more people than any other sector.
Oh, and there's this: I just spent a month in one of our world-class health care institutions and am writing you from another.
So, yes, my perspective on the big budget debate happening in Washington is unique. Politicians are not used to taking orders. But here, doctors tell me what to do. (Actually, it's the amazing nurses.) In Washington, "winning the 24-hour news cycle" is victory. You know what victory is for patients down the hall from me? Walking.
I hope you'll understand that if my tone is unusually blunt (even for me), it is because one sees things differently here. I have to ask as you work to avoid the "fiscal cliff": Talk differently to the American people.
We don't seek "austerity." Austerity describes hospital food and institutional walls. Show us opportunity. Sell us on progress.
Tell us the truth, especially on taxes. Brian, my nurse, doesn't come to my room in the morning to say, "Mayor, if you just sit here, unburdened by taxing exercises, free from our rehab rules and regulations, you will get stronger." He tells it like it is. You can, too.
And tell those who can do more, to do more. In a hospital, it gets real clear real fast about what real fortune is. We need more "there but for the grace of God go I" and less, dare I say, "I built that."
I'll be honest with you. I've endured a lot of pain over the last month. But except for my family and the support of the great people of Boston, you know what's gotten me through? The knowledge that literally nowhere else in the world is there a better place to get healthy than Boston. They don't make pain medicine for "If I had only been born somewhere else."
Other people come here to get well. It would make a good national motto. And it's a good reminder now. We can't slash funding for health research. Not $200 to $300 million a year in Massachusetts. Not $2.5 billion annually at the NIH.
Outside of Washington, we don't spend all day on your potential "Grand Bargain." Here, the term sounds like the frozen smoothie Brian offers me in exchange for another go at the stair machine. But if it means you'll come together for the American people, do that. We've had enough Democrat and Republican speak for a while.
The fiscal cliff is bad for our country, and so is any remedy that guts funding for discovery, for health care training, and for healing. I write to urge you and all of your counterparts to give it to us straight on that fact, even from here. Especially from here.
Sincerely,
Thomas M. Menino
Mayor, City of Boston
Cross-posted from cityofboston.gov
Follow Thomas M. Menino on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mayortommenino
Linda Bergthold: Is health care part of the "fairy dust" talk about the fiscal cliff?
Robert Reich: Understanding the Fiscal Cliff (In 2 Minutes 30 Seconds)
George Lakoff: Why It's Hard to Replace the 'Fiscal Cliff' Metaphor
Tavis Smiley: Ceilings, Cliffs and Walls
The Mayor has set a standard for civil meaningful input on important topics.
Let's see who can match its tone and substance when communcating with our elected officials.
In Australia, we have Medicare. All who pay income tax, pay 1.5% of before tax incomre into it. It covers all Australians. This provides health care for free in NOT-FOR-PROFIT good public hospitals. The federal government regulates all health care charges, the cost of perscription medicines and the health insurance industry. If you choose to go private you can shop around for health insurance. This is not socialism, it is common sense.
We pay $4,000 per year for medical, optical and dental cover. This covers the cost of the 'gap' between government set charges and what our private providers charge.
A friend in Oregon went into hospital for a day and a half, saw a cardiologist, had a stress test and angiogram, then 2 stents put in heart arteriest. Cost - $40,000.
My husband went into a private hospital for open heart surgery to replace the aortic valve and repair his aorta. He was in ICU for 2 days, in hospital for 10, with all the bells and whistles. Cost - $35,000. We were out of pocket only $500.
There is something very wrong with the system in the US, where people die because they cannot afford health care.
Those in Congress need to become bipartisan, stop pandering to those who funded their campaigns, and start doing what is best for the people. A country is judged by how well it looks after all its citizens.
Your letter is very inspiring, indeed!
Could you please send it to the Boston Globe for publication?
Glad to hear you are making progress!
Please, take good care of yourself; your city needs you!!
Americas priorities should be to help all it's citizens be healthy and well, that way they can work and not be a burden on anyone.
I don't understand why republicans can't understand by catching disease early and keeping people healthy it saves money.
All elected officials should be thrown to the insurance wolves on the "free market." Then we would see some change.
Your filthy party defunds basic research. I hope you don't have a need for medicines based on the original research done by big pharma, because there isn't any.