Question for the Houston Chronicle

The editorial “Stiffed” made a single point about health care financing very well: U.S. citizens are not getting value for their money.

Last Friday, the Health Museum of Houston hosted a congressional hearing presided over by U.S. Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and John Conyers. At that hearing, a panel of experts in the field that included doctors, nurses, hospital CEOs, health care administrators and AFL-CIO leaders provided ample details on how our current system is broken.

They discussed specific situations, viable solutions and detailed examples of how other countries fix the same problems with less money in a more efficient way and without excluding any citizens.

A bill was announced to the audience: HR 676, which guarantees preventative and primary health care access to every single American. This bill has received the support of an overwhelming amount of citizen groups, doctors and nurses’ organizations. More than 100 members of the House have co-signed it.

Why was this event not covered by the Chronicle?

Editorials certainly help bring the issue to the table, and I hope that the Chronicle will cover future debates and the cycle of HR 676 in Congress with accuracy and vigor.

Our democracy can survive with nothing less.

Cut the Needy to Feed the Greedy

Markowitz writes, adding, “There’s a better way.” She concludes that the passage of a bill (HR 676) designed to “strengthen and expand Medicare” to all residents “should be at the top of the agenda for the next president