An Open Letter to The Blue Dog Coalition

PRLog (Press Release) - Jul 29, 2009 -
Dear Honorable Leaders and Members of The Blue Dog Coalition:

As a healthcare professional and the leader of a national campaign to protect the rights of doctors and patients, I urge you to vote against HR3200: America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009.

On July 4, 2009, I founded a new organization, Doctors on Strike for Freedom in Medicine (www.doctorsonstrike.com), to take on the mission of preserving, protecting, and promoting freedom in healthcare.  We simultaneously issued a Declaration of Independence for Doctors and declared a philosophical and political war against more governmental intrusion into healthcare.  

Doctors on Strike is establishing a rapidly growing national audience through our internet presence at www.doctorsonstrike.com, where we supply doctors and patients with the philosophical and political ammunition to fight for their rights.  Launched three weeks ago, our website has been visited by people from 882 cities in 42 countries around the world, including all 50 states in America.  Our message is getting through to people interested in protecting individual rights in healthcare.  

We hope this communication will get our message through to each member of the Democratic Blue Dog Coalition.

Doctors on Strike is based on the principles that:

   •   Doctors and patients have the same inalienable individual rights that all human beings have — the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;
   •   The purpose of government is to secure these rights, not violate them;
   •   Rights impose limitations on government;
   •   Government intrusion into healthcare violates these rights;
   •   HR3200 would violate these rights, be fiscally irresponsible, and gravely threaten the viability of the healthcare system; and
   •   Doctors, patients, and elected officials need to act — now — to preserve, protect, and promote individual rights and freedom in medicine.

Our most pressing goal for 2009 is to help defeat HR3200 and other statist healthcare reform proposals now circulating in Washington. To this end, Doctors on Strike is actively encouraging doctors and patients to put intense political pressure on legislators during your deliberations on healthcare reform.  We supply our national audience with the intellectual and political ammunition to do this.

We provide links to the contact information on every senator and representative.  You should know that we just added a special website page devoted to the 51 members of the Blue Dog Coalition, which provides the names, pictures, and contact information on each Blue Dog.  We are encouraging doctors and patients to urge the Blue Dogs to reform healthcare in a fiscally responsible manner and with due respect for the right of doctors and patients. 

As the 2010 election cycle approaches, we will identify and publicly support those candidates for elected offices at the state and federal level who champion individual rights in healthcare.  We hope you will be one of them.  

We will also unhesitatingly identify and publicly target for defeat any candidates who support legislation that violates individual rights. We just created a page on our website, “Targeted for Defeat in 2010,” with this goal in mind.

We recently created an online Petition to Protect Doctor-Patient Rights, which will be submitted to Congress and calls on legislators to oppose legislation that provides for any:

   •   Public plan option,
   •   Mandates that force individuals to buy insurance coverage,
   •   Mandates that force employers to provide insurance coverage,
   •   Surcharges that force some groups to pay for the healthcare of other groups, and
   •   Mandates that force doctors to participate in public plans.

(Petition is at http://www.doctorsonstrike.com/petitiontoprotectdoctor-pa...)

We are also encouraging doctors to prepare themselves to go on strike against government-run healthcare programs.  We want doctors to let the country know now that, if the President signs legislation to establish a new government healthcare plan, they will refuse to participate in any such plan and will also stop participating in all other government healthcare programs, including Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, and SCHIP.

Our blog, "Doctors on Strike," regularly posts news and opinions on healthcare reform.  Last week we posted the news that the House Ways and Means Committee, marking up the Health bill:

   •   Rejected 25-15 an amendment from Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that would have eliminated the public plan option;
   •   Rejected 22-19 amendment from Rep. Charles Boustany (R-La.) that would have prevented providers from being forced to participate in the public plan;
   •   Rejected 21-18 an amendment from Rep. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) that would have required members of Congress and their dependents to enroll in the public plan option;
   •   Rejected 21-19 an amendment from Rep. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) that would have based payment rates on the private market, rather than on Medicare;
   •   Rejected 26-15 an amendment by Rep. Wally Herger (R-Calif.) that would have prevented comparative effectiveness research from being used to deny care based on cost.
(Source: John Goodman’s Health Policy Blog)

This information made it absolutely clear to our audience that those Democrats in Congress who support HR3200 are poised to inject a massive, lethal dose of statism into the brain of our healthcare system--the independent practice of medicine--a long-established, well-tested tradition in which doctors and patients exercise their right to make personal and private healthcare decisions that are informed by the professional training and experience of the doctor and tailored to the unique needs of the patient--without the forceful intrusion of government bureaucrats.  We fear that this massive dose of statism will induce a wave of “seizures” in the healthcare economy — inflation, price controls, doctor shortages, waiting periods, and rationing.  This is clearly the wrong medicine at the wrong time for the faltering economy, in general, and the over-regulated healthcare sector, in particular.

In your deliberations on healthcare reform, we respectfully ask you to demonstrate your respect for the rights of doctors and patients by opposing any government option, mandates for individual insurance coverage, mandates for employer coverage, tax surcharges, and requirement for doctors to participate in a public option.  These provisions are immoral, unconstitutional violations of our rights as doctors and patients.  These provisions are also fiscally irresponsible.

We urge you instead to support and vote for legislation to decrease the federal regulation of the entire healthcare industry.  The burdens of federal and state control are stifling competition and innovation among insurance companies and other healthcare providers.  They are a major cause of inflation in healthcare goods and services.  

We understand that many of you are considering running for reelection. If your vote(s) reflect fiscal responsibility and respect the rights of doctors and patients, we will openly and vigorously support your reelection.  If your vote(s) are fiscally irresponsible and violate the rights and doctors and patients, we may have no choice but to support your opponent.  

We hope you make the right choice for freedom in America.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter.

Respectfully,

Dr. Gregory L. Garamoni
Founder & Executive Director, Doctors on Strike for Freedom in Medicine
2304 Sawgrass Village Drive
Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
904-631-3939
www.doctorsonstrike.com
garamoni@gmail.com


July 29, 2009

Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/10295473/1