I’m writing again to ask that you reconsider withholding support for an insurance exchange that includes some form of public option. While such a program may be expensive, many health economists insist that in the log run such a program would be cost effective in making health insurance both available and affordable for Americans.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, the National Center for Health Care Statistics, the Commonwealth Fund, and the Kaiser Family Foundation (to name only four) all have solid data supporting such claims for cost effectiveness. I urge you and your aides to carefully consider their cases.

Information available from the Census Bureau points to the urgent need for such reform in your own District. Figures from 2005 (the latest available) show that almost 150,000 people, under the age of 65, in the Fourth Congressional District, are uninsured. This figure is from before recent and ongoing economic downturns, so it is no stretch to assume that the numbers are higher now.

In a District of about 700,000 people, this means about one in five people under 65 is without health insurance of any kind. Consider that the average income for this District is about 33,000 dollars per year, and that the Federal poverty level for a family of four is about 22,000 dollars per year, and it is not hard to see why one in five people are uninsured. They simply cannot afford insurance. This would seem to apply as readily to small business operators who might wish to provide coverage, as it is for those who need to find coverage from some other source besides an employer’s plan.

Almost 30% of the people under age 65 in your home county are without insurance. Looking around the District at those in that group (under age 65), Greene County stands at almost 26%, as is the case in Lamar County. Perry and Pearl River Counties stand at 1 in 4 under age 65 without insurance. The same holds true for Forrest County (about 1 in 4), and Harrison and Jackson Counties stand at 21.9% and 20.4%, respectively.

Looking to numbers for those under 19 years of age brings more disheartening news. 21% of the children under 19 in Hancock County are without health insurance of any kind. Almost 27% of the children under 19 who live in Lamar County are in the same predicament. In Clark and Perry Counties, the numbers stand at about 1 in 4 children under the age of 19 living without health coverage of any kind.

These numbers bring further considerations. Given the economic margins and the high cost of most insurance in terms of deductibles and co-pays, it is not hard to imagine that a great number of those who have insurance forego doctor visits until the situation is, for them, critical. This pushes people into the most high cost aspect of current health care, the emergency room, and tends toward making any medical intervention from that point more long term and, so, much more expensive for policy holders and tax payers. It also increases the odds for personal financial failure in the form of bankruptcy, and that hurts the individual who file, the companies they owe, and in a ripple affect the communities where both live.

That is the status quo, and that is unsustainable, and it is unsustainable for all the reasons you now say stand in your way concerning support for a public option. Mr. Taylor, we cannot afford not to install an exchange with a public option as one option among others. The numbers of people in your District who stand to benefit by the inclusion of a public option speak for themselves. This is true in similar Districts across the country, many represented by members of the Blue Dog Coalition.

Again, I urge you and your aides to carefully consider the facts of this matter, support a public option as one among several options in an insurance exchange, and then urge members of your Coalition to do the same.

Sincerely,

Harry Ferguson