Letters To The Editor Write-a-thon
You may type or copy and paste your letter in the box below. Click the "ideas" link if you need some ideas to get you started.
Special tip: It's even better if your letter refers to a recently published news article or editorial by the newspaper. Most newspapers have a word count limit so the form will warn you if you go over 250 words.
Click on some topics below to get started. However, do not send the letter as-is. Personalize it using your own stories and ideas.
If you are writing a letter about healthcare, here are some ideas.
Remember to tell your personal story of how this issue affects you.
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[Write From Scratch]
Friday December 10th was the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But sadly, Vermonters do not yet have the right to healthcare. Healthcare is a human right: everyone should receive the healthcare they need when they need it, and no one should have to pay more than they can afford to, for healthcare. Our healthcare system is a public good, and it should serve our needs and those of our communities rather than being primarily a source of income for powerful insurance, pharmaceutical and medical industries.
December 10th marks the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. While the rest of the developed countries recognize healthcare as a human right, the United States does not. In the coming year, Vermont has an opportunity to become the first state in the country to create a healthcare system that treats healthcare as a human right. We have an opportunity to stop allowing healthcare to be treated as a commodity available only to those who can pay the constantly rising costs. We can stop wasting money on the administration of insurance plans and over-priced medicines -- and simply provide everyone with the healthcare they need. Each of us can stop having to worry about whether we can afford premiums, deductibles and co-payments.
Even though the US is a signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which anniversary we observe this December 10, it still treats health care as a commodity instead of a human right. Everyone needs healthcare, regardless of their "lifestyle". In particular, everyone needs primary and preventive care, which can both improve health and reduce the need for expensive chronic care. The idea that we can control the cost of healthcare by denying care is backwards. We can control the cost of healthcare best by providing primary and preventive care, by eliminating healthcare profiteering and by eliminating administrative waste.
So-called "market-based" solutions to the healthcare crisis have not worked and cannot work, because the goals of a business are different from the goals of our communities. As a public good, our healthcare system must be publicly financed and publicly administered, because the system must be accountable to our communities, not to shareholders or bean counters.
Fundamental reform to our healthcare system is not a radical idea. In the rest of the “developed” world, countries provide care to all, spend less than half (per-capita) of what we spend in the U.S. and have better outcomes (such as life expectancy and infant mortality). The difference is that other countries treat their healthcare system as a public good; they treat healthcare as a human right. Though Vermont is doing better than much of the rest of the U.S., we are struggling with a system that is over-priced and unsustainable. Fundamental reform is necessary if we are going to solve the healthcare crisis.
The insurance, pharmaceutical and other medical industries make huge amounts of money in the current healthcare system, and they spend huge amounts of money on marketing, advertising and lobbying. These industries are very powerful, sophisticated and persuasive, and their interests are in direct conflict with the interests of communities seeking healthcare as a public good. It is only by joining together in our communities to demand healthcare as a human right that we can overcome the power of these industries.
I would like to respond to the (editorial, letter, or op-ed) in the (whatever) edition of the (name of paper). In this piece, the author wrote that there should be no government-run health care and that it should be the free-market’s domain. I respectfully disagree. In the letter, etc, for instance, the author wrote "(blah, blah)." I ask how the author can justify free-market health care when the insurance carriers are raising their rates by as much as 40% in some cases....
Recently, your paper ran a story about healthcare costs soaring (or the struggling economy). A great solution would be for Vermont to establish healthcare as a basic right and not linked to one’s job. [your own words here]
In the next year Vermont can become the first state in the country to establish universal healthcare. It is a disgrace that in a state like Vermont, in the wealthiest nation in the democratic world, that so many thousands of our citizens are uninsured because of economics and so many other thousands are so underinsured that they cannot access medical care with the insurance that they have without fear of financial trauma. No Vermonter should be cut off of medical care because they cannot afford it or fear losing their house. Healthcare is a right of being human. In this next legislative session, with a Governor who supports single-payer, we have the chance to at last make healthcare a right for all Vermonters.
Dear Editor,
(you may also want to invite readers to our upcoming massive Put People First Rally on May 1st at the Statehouse, Montpelier at noon)
Sincerely,
Publication(s)
While you may get priority if you lived in the area, newspapers regularly print letters from residents of other towns in Vermont, so feel free to pick any one (or more) from the list below.
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