Dear Congressman Taylor: We received your letter on August 4, 2009 in which you explain why you will not support major health care reform and we thank you for your reply.  We write to say we are extremely disappointed that you oppose any measures being supported by the current Administration. Perhaps a personal story will help you understand why either a single-payer plan or the public option is an essential part of health care reform.  It is not a tragic story; however it illustrates the problem with allowing the for-profit insurance industry to continue its stranglehold on and control of the entire health care system. My husband is a self-employed woodworker who has been a very successful entrepreneur in the Pass Christian vicinity for over 30 years.  Peter has a thriving small business and has employed several local workers over the years.  Peter would love to provide health insurance for his workers but cannot afford to. I, on the other hand, have spent my working life employed with larger corporations or agencies where I have always enjoyed good benefits including decent health insurance.  When we met, I was horrified to learn he had no health insurance.  Peter explained that he had had complete coverage in the past but that recently when insurance premiums began to skyrocket, he had dropped all coverage and was basically self-insured. When we married in 2001 I placed Peter on my insurance policy with my employer.  Premiums for dependents were high but not out of reach.  I then left for a nonprofit law firm.  The cost of dependent coverage with Blue Cross Blue Shield was very high but my employer was still covering 50% of dependent premiums.  In 2004, insurance costs became so high that my employer ceased paying a portion of the dependent premiums.  We were advised by our employer to find independent coverage for our dependents because our employer’s dependent care premiums were outrageously high.  We thus decided to forgo my employer policy for Peter and obtain only catastrophic independent coverage for him.  Much to our complete shock, BCBS denied him any coverage at all!  This was wholly unexpected as Peter has always been healthy, is a non-smoker, and has no pre-existing medical conditions.  The denial letter stated it was due to previous claims.  When we inquired further, BCBS stated it was because he had had treatment for a sinus infection under my policy with my employer in the previous calendar year.  We asked if they would still cover him and not cover anything related to his sinuses and were told no.  (Ironically, he has not had another single sinus problem since.) I now work for the federal government and therefore, like you, I have the luxury of being able to provide decent affordable coverage for my family.  But that does not mean that I do not care about millions of hard-working people across the country who are not as fortunate as you and I to have generous benefits through our employer. The fundamental problem with our system is that insurance for health care, a life necessity, is a wholly for profit industry.  The Administration has NEVER advocated socializing or nationalizing medicine and recognizes the market place will reward health care providers who achieve better results at lower costs.  However, insurance owes its entire profit margin to two things:  (1) figuring out how not to issue any coverage to people who might get sick, like my husband; and (2) delaying and/or denying benefits to people covered by their policy for whatever insidious reason they can find, which in turn, results in astronomical administrative costs that all of the research shows are many times that of single payer plans. You have been a very outspoken proponent of all perils insurance.  Your web-site states: “Because the property insurance industry continues to cherry pick portions of the market it wants, home and business owners remain burdened with a patchwork maze of insurance options which often are quite limited and expensive for the 55%of Americans who live within 50 miles of the nation's beautiful coastlines.” If I understand you correctly, because the property insurance industry has essentially pulled out of South Mississippi and other coastal areas through “cherry picking” of lower risk areas, you want to ensure that people and businesses in coastal areas have full and affordable coverage through the US government.  Perhaps your all perils policy proposal has not gained traction in Congress because it is a sweet gift to the insurance industry – it allows the industry to continue to cherry pick but at the taxpayer’s expense. President Obama’s proposal for the health insurance public option in fact would force the health insurance industry to be more fair and more competitive, which is why the health insurance lobby is spending millions on fear tactics and is manufacturing outrage at townhalls across the country.  Moreover, your support for all perils property insurance alongside your opposition to the public option for health care is a terribly cruel joke.  Affordable health care is a vital necessity; a fully insured casino, hotel, or beach house is not. The fact is that the cost of health insurance is devastating to small businesses across the country.  It also prevents many potential entrepreneurs from launching their own innovative business.  Lack of affordable health insurance for individuals is the greatest obstacle we face to the creation of small business.  If you value small businesses and innovative entrepreneurs, you will stop listening to the health insurance industry and listen to people like us. Thank you, Dita M. Long Beach, MS