HOW I SEE IT: Disgraceful Obama sign got me thinking

By: Traci Dippert, Culpeper | Culpeper Star-Exponent
Published: October 05, 2009

I recently stood outside the Post Office, where I live in Culpeper Virginia, to talk to my community about health care. What prompted me to do so was a picture of our president with a Hitler mustache another group was displaying along with their information.

Rolling down my window and telling them they should be ashamed of themselves was not enough. I went back down there with bullet points from the president’s plan and phone numbers of our congressmen.

Our system works better for insurance companies than it does for the American people, and our citizens need to know that. The profits of the 10 largest insurance companies between 2001 and 2007 rose 428 percent. We are being taken advantage of and I am responding by saying, “It’s not acceptable.”

Insurance companies are spending $1 million dollars a day to try to defeat health care reform, which is easy to do when your profit increased 428 percent. It’s not a fair fight and I am responding by saying, “It’s not acceptable.” President Obama’s plan will simply put into place what should have already been in place for this industry. It should be against the law for insurance companies to deny coverage based on a preexisting condition, to drop or weaken coverage when you get sick or to place a cap on the amount of coverage you can receive in a given year or a lifetime. Remember the 428 percent profit increase.

The President’s plan calls for the creation of a new insurance exchange for small businnesses and individuals. One of the options available in the insurance exchange should be a public insurance option. The public option is a way to create more competition and ensure every American has an affordable choice. Remember the 428 percent profit increase.

As for the Hitler mustache picture of our president, it turned more people off than it pulled in. I passed out all my flyers and received thanks for my approach and dedication to the truth.

They had to load their flyer back into their car. Scare tactics don’t work. The American people are smarter than that, and shame on those who try.