A call to action for lame-duck Congress

President Obama needs to bring in Howard Dean to ramrod these new and improved health care provisions through the lame-duck session, including:

l Tort reform limiting liability exposure for health care professionals.

l Eliminate the requirement for business to produce 1099 forms for all purchases over $600.

l Drop the age for Medicare eligibility from age 65 to 55.

l Allow health insurance companies to do business across state lines, which will increase competition and expand the options employers can choose from for health insurance coverage.

l Allow Medicare and Medicaid to demand competitive bidding for medicine in their drug programs, and allow them to get drugs from Canadian drug companies.

l Speed up the schedule for implementing the provision for preventing health insurance companies from dropping sick people from their existing health insurance plans or doubling their rates as they have been doing the last six months.

l Penalize with added taxes any physician group that refuses to accept Medicare patients.

Obama also should offer this to the Republicans in exchange for signing a bill permanently keeping Bush's tax cut for the middle class and for extending for two years the tax cut for families making more than $250,000, if Republicans will support legislation demanding full disclosure of all political campaign contributions from corporations, be they foreign and domestic.

The public demands to know who is attempting to buy our U.S senators, representatives and governors.

William Peterson

North Liberty