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Florida Congresswoman Sends to Every Member of Senate Canadian-born U.S. Citizen's Prescription for Health Care Reform

Posted on: Tuesday, 12 May 2009, 13:43 CDT

Program's author Philip Leitman draws from personal experience with American private care system and distinct single-payer systems in two Canadian provinces

MIAMI, May 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and a Democratic constituent in her Florida district are enthusiastically sharing their prescription for health care reform in America in a personal letter to every member of the Senate.

Both Rep. Ros-Lehtinen and her constituent Philip Leitman, President of NTM Info & Research (NTMir) (www.ntminfo.org), who wrote the prescription, say they understand the urgent need to provide health care coverage for more people across the country, but they believe it must address the sensitive issue of private insurance retention and apply sound business principles.

"We've identified what we believe are the key components of health care reform," said Leitman, who wrote the prescription for his congresswoman whom he said always invites ideas from her constituents, regardless of party affiliation.

No newcomer to health care, Leitman has been leading a national campaign to find a permanent treatment and cure for Nontuberculous Mycobacterial lung disease (NTM), from which his wife Fern has long suffered.

Believing the plan merited serious consideration and discussion by Congress, Rep. Ros-Lehtinen subsequently sent it to Chairman Henry Waxman and Ranking Member Joe Barton of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Key components of the plan include:

• Reinsurance with expense caps for private insurers
• Eliminating all "existing condition" exclusions
• Extending COBRA coverage timeframes
• Providing all childhood and adult vaccines at greatly reduced costs
• Providing basic health care to all citizens
• Revising standard cost structures
• Implementing price range guidelines for services in order to reduce cost disparities between providers
• Requiring all services that can be provided at home, such as intravenous (IV) infusion, to be done at home to reduce costs and the patient's risk of infection
• Allowing Medicare to pay physicians a fair fee

According to Rep. Ros-Lehtinen, the Federal government should provide federal and state guidelines for private insurance instead of a single-payer federal system or a single-payer system implemented at the state level, which will:

• Dramatically reduce costs.
• Provide a social safety net for all eligible U.S. citizens.
• Keep democratic and capitalist-oriented independent healthcare system intact.

SOURCE Philip Leitman

Source: PR Newswire

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