To The Editor:
Candidates for public office filed their fundraising reports this week and I was shocked by the report submitted by Congressman Joe Pitts.
Mr. Pitts is the Chair of the House Subcommittee on Health. As such, he has oversight and regulatory powers over the health care industry. Yet Mr. Pitts’ filing revealed that he accepted contributions from 29 organizations representing corporations and associations in the health care field. These ranged from health insurers to specialist associations to manufacturers. The total of these contributions in the last quarter was at least $62,500.
In my mind, this is an outrageous conflict of interest. How can he ethically accept so much money from those who he is entrusted to regulate and oversee? The honorable and moral thing to do would be for him to return these donations and pledge not to accept them in the future.
It appears that Mr. Pitts might have forgotten that he is there to serve us, his constituents, and not the health care industry.
Wayne Braffman
Kennett Square
I’m self-employed, for 37 years in business, and I had quite a few back and forths qwith Joe Pitts when he was in the state house, as my representative, about the inequity of if you are a small (and I mean 5 or less) business, there was no “group” we could join to pool numbers for policies…we were all direct pay policy holders, paying THE highest premiums bar none based on identical medical histories. He was no help at all…his “solution” was to join NACE where I could get a “discounted” policy…which was a major medical policy, not a good comprehensive health policy. When he moved on up to the US House, his stand on amking healthcare available to any and everyone, is the same as it was years ago…KMAG YOYO.
He has never been able to help me, or offer any sensible solution to healthcare except that he has got his. Time for Joe to go.
Just so we’re clear, you support big pharma buying an owning an elected official?
I’m sure that hasn’t caused any damage to the healthcare system, which, by the way, measured by expense to outcome isn’t even close to the best in the world (unless you’re big pharma, an insurance company or marketing expensive medical equipment).
And those 7.1 million people had junk policies so awful (I guess you support folks being able to pay more in premiums than they get in benefits) they should have been made illegal years ago.
You also don’t mention that costs for policies have gone down, and tens of millions of folks have benefitted from Obamacare. It ain’t perfect, but where’s the apocalypse you (and Pitts, by the way) insisted was coming with this law?
Not seeing it.
Obama destroying the greatest heallthcare system in the world, his “you can keep your plan, you can keep your doctor” lie, and him causing 7.1 million working-class Americans to loose their healthcare coverage is unethical. Your fake outrage is laughable.