Honorable Mary Landrieu 2-4

[domehead]

Senator, with all due respect, your statement that we can keep our existing plans, and the government will not get in the way, is either disingenuous or you have not “competently” reviewed and digested H.R. 3200. As Columnist Leonard Pitts said recently, those are 2 sides of a coin I’d rather not flip. I respectfully suggest you take all possible steps to (a) revise the “grandfathered” policy language to make each existing plan truly grandfathered as long as it remains in force, regardless of any changes, without any need to comply with any other provisions, and (b) trim the “essential benefits package” to make it truly essential, eliminating coverages which should be optional, based on the need or desire of the covered insured.

In a similar vein, you say the bill will offer “more affordable choices.” The bill allows 4 plans, and only 4 plans: the “basic, the enhanced, the premium and the premium plus.” If the government, pursuant to this bill, places any limits on the types and contents of the coverages offered, beyond a redefined “essential benefits package” which covers a true list of only basic essentials, then the choices are being reduced, not expanded.