Note: These points are only to provide information and suggestions. Your letter does not need to include all these points and most importantly should be written in your own words—that’s what will make it so powerful.
Our health care system is broken, and American families and businesses urgently need a solution.
- Forty-six million Americans are uninsured.
- Premiums are growing four times faster than wages.
- Half of all personal bankruptcies stem from medical expenses
President Obama has presented a detailed health insurance reform plan that achieves three main goals:
- Creating security and stability for all those who already have insurance. The plan prevents insurance companies from discriminating based on preexisting conditions, or from dropping coverage when people are sick and need it most.
- Providing access to quality, affordable coverage for those who don’t have insurance. The plan creates a new insurance marketplace — the Exchange — that allows people without insurance and small businesses to compare plans and buy insurance at competitive prices—and creates new tax breaks to help small businesses and struggling families afford coverage.
- Lowering the cost of health care for our families, businesses, and government. The plan won’t add a dime to the deficit, and innovations and reforms will make health care more affordable for all of us.
Congress must past real health care reform in 2009.
Consider sharing your personal story about how high costs, restrictive plans or insufficient coverage have affected you and your loved ones.
• Be concise. Most newspapers ask for Letters to the Editor to be less than 300 words.
• Write from the heart. The most powerful letters will tell your personal story about why the topic of your letter is so important to you.