Mary Clemons is president of Women’s Voices Raised for Social Justice.
To the editor:
Work is being done to create health-insurance exchanges in the Missouri that would provide market-based, one-stop shopping for health insurance for small businesses and for individuals who lack insurance due to unaffordable premiums or for those who have been denied health insurance. Not only will these health marketplaces improve quality, increase transparency and give consumers greater control and more choice, they’ll also create much needed competition and help bring costs down.
The Missouri Senate is looking into establishing the insurance exchanges and are having hearings across the state. However, some senators are hijacking the process, making our health care a political football once again.
The senators held hearings in Kansas City in August, and even though more than 70 citizens turned out to present testimony, only one was allowed to testify, making the hearing a show of health-insurance executives, brokers, doctors and others who oppose the Affordable Care Act.
We must demand that the hearings be non-partisan and that citizens who come to speak, be heard. After all, we are the ones who will be purchasing the insurance. Our legislators should hear what we have to say.
They need to hear the stories of average people who need the exchanges to buy affordable health insurance.
Please write your state legislators and express your outrage at the way these hearings are being conducted.
