Dear Congressman Shuler;
The four registered voters in our NC-11 household were appalled by a slick mailer we received last week from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America urging us to thank you for working for them instead of us in the matter of health care reform. This letter is to lodge formal complaint and explain once again why we do NOT want either the insurers or the drug companies writing this necessary legislation.
Our formal complaint is to the information provided in this mailer that you work for Big Pharma and not for us, the constituents you were elected to represent. This group makes no bones about the fact that you have chosen to represent these corporate interests, and expects us to congratulate you for shamefully unethical behavior. We most certainly do not congratulate you for succumbing to rampant D.C. corruption in record time.
The mailer talks about how Big Pharma's contribution to the reform effort will "help close" the Medicare Part D "donut hole" they themselves wrote into the original bill to ensure obscene profits and force American seniors on fixed incomes to pay more for necessary drugs than anyone else in the world. As well as prevent Medicare by law from negotiating lower drug prices, as all other first world nations (with universal, single-payer health care) do and have done so successfully for so long.
In fact, according to an analysis of the proposed Part D changes under HR 3200 (the specific subject of this propaganda mailer) by the Wall Street Journal Health Blog, the Congressional Budget Office concluded that any decrease in average spending on prescriptions by drug-dependent seniors will more than be made up for by an increase in premiums seniors must pay for Part D. According to CBS News seniors will be paying 20% more for coverage by 2019. 20% is very significant to a great many seniors in your district, Mr. Shuler.
Two of the voters in this household - myself and my husband - will be 68 years old in 2019. Thanks to the recent destruction of the nation's economy by greedy bankers and insurers (whom we and our children and grandchildren were forced to bail out to the tune of trillions in completely unaccountable dollars), our only income will be Social Security, and our only access to health care will be Medicare. So you are going to deliberately rob us further on orders from your corporate masters. That is completely unacceptable.
As proud long-time residents of WNC, registered Democratic voters and active participants in Democratic politics, we will be lobbying hard and very publicly beginning immediately in favor of a primary challenge to you next year from a candidate more committed to both the people of this district and the Democratic Party. You brought this on yourself, as we were all delighted when you were willing to run against Chainsaw Charlie. We would have supported you for a very long career in politics if you'd just been less corruptible and less willing to sell us out in favor of corporations who do NOT vote in this district and cannot keep you in power.
Though they probably can make you rich, so you may wish to go ahead and apply for that post-Congress Big Pharma lobbying job now.
In Sincerely Sad Disappointment,
[the four of us registered voters, address in NC-11]
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