Health care reform, line by line

What an opportunity the president has given Congress: he has offered to invite any Congressman to come to the White House and go over the health care bill "line by line."

All you educators out there. Wouldn't this be like a classroom assignment or term paper to collect all the data? Let's get the answers to these questions?

1. Who are the authors of each sentence in the bill - get the names of each congressional staffer who wrote the actual legislation. What are their political affiliations? Do their backgrounds qualify them for the section of the bill that they wrote? Were they doctors, health care professionals, insurance underwriters, or lawyers representing these folks?

2. Have all lobbyists' meetings with these congressmen and their staffers been properly documented, including perks, meals, golf outings as we are led to believe are legally required logs of possible influence peddling? 3. Are there reasonable estimates of the financial costs and job loss impacts of each provision? After all, thousands of insurance company employees will be laid off as workers and businesses switch from private insurance to government insurance. Just what we need - more lost jobs!

4. Who will be making the decisions to deny medical procedures and prescription reimbursement to "marginal" people (old folks, etc.)? Who are writing the rules for these life and death decisions? (This is a perfect example of the value of capitalistic competition - if a private insurance company is found out to deny claims for deserving patients, that company may be sued or found to be criminally negligent and go out of business - the theme of several "Law and Order" episodes. If there is only one payer, the government, what are the chances of suing and winning a case against the government?)

Dave Souders

Arlington Heights