Congressman Lamar Smith Against Health Care

Dear Editor,
    While Lamar Smith has gained power and prestige in Congress, Texas has become home to the highest number of uninsured children in America. Now that the law has passed that promises to remedy that situation by eliminating insurance company abuses, our representative pledges to take away our health care by working to repeal this law.
    In our district alone, repealing this law would strip the opportunity of insurance from more than 25,000 of our uninsured children, more than 93,000 uninsured adults, and almost 2,000 uninsured seniors. Repealing this law would affect more than 75,000 young adults, one in four of which lives below the poverty level, who now qualify to stay on their parents' insurance policy instead of adding them to the pool of uninsured or government subsidized. Repealing this law would open back up the doughnut hole of prescription drug coverage for more than 83,000 of our seniors who are already on Medicare. Repealing this law would hurt more than 35% of our population of all ages and 95% of our seniors, almost 300,000 of our neighbors, who are either uninsured or are already on a government insurance program.
    Is it only a coincidence that two of the top 10 industries contributing to Smith’s campaign are insurance and pharmaceuticals, contributing almost $330,000? He has turned his back on our 300,000 neighbors in need and has forgotten why he was sent to Capitol Hill. It is the people's house. It's time that he casts his vote in the interests of our community, and it's time that we cast our votes for true representation. Whether we agree or disagree on this legislation, you can be assured that I will always represent all the people of this district – not only the wealthy, but also the most vulnerable.