Dear President Obama,
I just heard the news that you have suspended full implementation of Obamacare for another year. I’m shocked and confused.
I’m 72 years old and now you are telling me I must try to stay alive for another 12 months without your mandatory health insurance. Good luck. This may be easy for you and Michelle to do, but for someone of our age, its a major problem.
What happened, Mr. President? Remember four years ago when you and Joe Biden told us that we couldn’t even wait one more day because of all those sick and dying people filling our emergency rooms, all because they didn’t have any health insurance?
But I must admit one thing, since you started this government run health care system four years ago, I have actually noticed fewer and fewer uninsured people dying in North Shore Hospital’s emergency room.
In fact, the last time I was there, I didn’t notice one dead body. What a relief!
What’s going to happen next year is anyone’s guess. As a grandfather, I do worry what will happen if you have to bring Malia to G.W’s emergency room for stitches or something, and all those dead patients start reappearing again. She really may get frightened.
My advice to you is to tell her to step over the bodies and repeat that this was Bush’s fault all along. Kids of that age will believe anything that their father tells them.
By the way, the emergency rooms still require you to show their insurance cards. But remember, never ever show any photo ID. I’m glad you appointed another one of your lifelong friends as attorney general, because Eric Holder is absolutely correct. Those cards make everyone in the ER so uncomfortable, especially all those who don’t have any proof of their U. S. citizenship
Just when I was ready to pay Obamacare’s new higher premiums, when I accepted the fact that you may be forcing me to look for a new doctor, and when I am planning to go to Canada for that medical procedure that your government committee didn’t really like, you cancelled the program for a year.
Totally distraught, the first thing I did was to check with two of your most brilliant Obamacare supporters, Barbara Boxer and Anthony Weiner.
Unfortunately, both of them admitted that they themselves still haven’t read the bill or, for that matter, know anyone else in your administration who has read it either. But they assured me that Barbara Streisand said we would be fine.
Mr. president, even though I ran my own dental practice for 38 years, I taught dentistry for 20 years at North Shore-LIJ Hospital, and I was an Air Force dentist for two years as well.
I may not be as qualified as the government bureaucrats who are currently advising you. Maybe you are right. The year off will give you plenty of time to reexamine Obamacare and to iron out the rough spots. But I do suggest now since you personally solved all the problems in Syria, you use some of your new free time to clear up the following minor, unimportant, and inconsequential, Obamacare issues:
1 – You promised it would lower health care costs, yet these costs went up more than 12 percent last year alone. Could you please let us know exactly when health care costs will be coming down? Four years should be enough. In order to best get this information, I suggest you catch your secretary of Health and Human Services at the clubhouse before you both tee off. The secretary is really busy, you know. I’ll wait for your answer.
2 – You said your plan was going to lower insurance premiums, but last year many went up over 30 percent. I know it’s not a good time to ask you about this because you are preoccupied consulting with Putin, but the Congressional Budget Office might be a good place to start. I’ll try to get you a Congressional guide to show you where their office is located. Better yet, in April when you do your tax returns, could you let us know if you paid more for your own insurance this year. It really would help.
3 – I know you told us Obamacare was going to cost a measly $750 billion for the first 10 years. Now, the CBO says the cost has almost tripled. Over two trillion dollars and counting. Perhaps you could ask your new secretary of the Treasury to run those numbers by you again. That’s an awful lot of money to spend, especially since your administration has already run up a 17 trillion dollar deficit.
4 – I’m sure you know that businesses with 50 employees or more will have to pay an additional $250,000 per year or more, to cover their workers’ health insurance. It must be really hard for you to understand this issue because you never worked in the private sector or ran a business of your own. Could you please ask Sasha to ask her friends at school how their parents are dealing with it? Parents who send their children to private schools usually have a lot of experience in this. Thanks so much.
5 – You told us that an added feature of your plan is that it would create jobs. Right? But I heard that most businesses are reducing their worker’s hours or not hiring any new full time workers at all, because they now must cover everyone who works more than 30 hours per week. Have you been forced to cut your own White House staff? Don’t worry, Mr. president. You now have another year before you have to make any staff reductions for your celebrity parties. Best to ask your secretary of Labor about that one during your pick-up basketball game this week.
6 – You also guaranteed that there would be no tax increases. If I not mistaken, didn’t our taxes go up in January to pay for it? I thought only millionaires would pay the tax increases? Maybe you can ask your personal chef if her taxes went up. By the way, you also told us that Medicare would not be cut to pay for Obamacare? How is that going?
It just so happens, that one of our friends said your decision to limit my wife’s Pap smears and my PSA tests were done just to save money. Where did they get that ridiculous idea from?
7 – But thank God you assured us that we will keep our own doctor. But wait a minute. Since your idea is for all of us to change to a cheaper insurance plan, and our long time MD is not on my new plan, I guess I’ll need to find a new one, right? Please ask Michelle if the kids pediatrician still accepts your insurance?
8 – It gave me such confidence when Barney Frank told us that all our doctors and even the American Medical Association really loved your plan. But another little problem has come up. My doctor just found out that Obamacare is run by two government agencies. Imagine that?
She has this ridiculous notion that, being a doctor, she knows more about medicine than these Washington bureaucrats. How ridiculous is that? The Independent Payment Advisory Board now regulates all of her payments and the U.S. Preventative Service Task Force tells her what medical treatments she is allowed to perform.
Four years ago, Michele Bachmann said that when government runs our health care system, it’s called socialized medicine. Chris Matthews called her a right wing fanatic. Really?
By the way, did you hear that proton beam therapy will not be allowed to treat prostate cancer anymore? Not because it was ineffective, but because it is to expensive. That has nothing to do with non-medical bureaucrats trying to reduce costs by telling our doctors how to practice medicine, does it, Mr. president?
9 – My next question came up at Temple last week. Could you tell us why you, Michelle, the kids and every congressmen and their families, have been given a permanent exclusion from Obamacare? All my friends really want to know why all of you would give up something so wonderful? Speaking of Temple, was there a reason why you stopped having the monthly White House prayer-breakfasts? Just curious since presidents for years thought it was really important to have them.
10 – We also have a little problem with a new government study that was released last month. Since it was not funded by those evil Republicans or the Koch brothers, you may want to examine it. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, your own government agency that administers the program, concluded that since Obamacare started, the number of doctors opting out of Medicare has tripled, many others are limiting the number of Medicare patients and many are not taking any new Medicare patients at all.
Remember when AARP said Obamacare was great for retirees? Do you think they will now reconsider their endorsement of Obamacare? For some people, like the AARP, it’s really hard to admit they made a mistake.
Speaking of Congress, Nancy “pass the bill and we’ll find out about it later” Pelosi, was not worried that all her plastic surgeries would not be covered under Obamacare.
She must also be so thrilled with her Congressional exemption.
Isn’t it great having congresswomen like her, who so relate to the middle class? When you see her, please tell her I loved those Mikimoto pearls she was wearing.
Maybe, Mr. president, we need something to take our minds off your new health care system such as the country’s continuous 7.5 percent unemployment, a stagnant economy, our massive debt and all those persistent foreclosures and bankruptcies.
Your best strategy? How about starting a war?
Dr. Stephen Morris DDS
North Hills
