Dear Representative:

The National Right to Life Committee has long considered as a core pro-life euthanasia issue the right not to be denied lifesaving medical treatment against one’s will. This includes protection from health care rationing in the form of government prohibitions on people being allowed to spend their own money, if they choose, as needed to get unrationed health care.

NRLC fought hard, especially in 1995-1997 and 2003, to secure the right of older people covered by Medicare to spend their own money to save their own lives. We succeeded in persuading Congress to add "private fee-for-service plans" as an alternative in what is now called Medicare Advantage, under which Medicare beneficiaries can annually pick from competing plans. Private fee-for-service plans allow older people who choose to do so to add their own money on top of the government contribution in order to obtain insurance plans less likely to ration health care and – after 2003 – prescription drugs. The government is now prevented from limiting either what older people can pay in premiums for these plans, or what the plans can pay health care providers. H.R. 4 would reverse this hard-fought pro-life victory by limiting these plans to paying only drug prices in theory "negotiated" but in practice set by the government.

Limiting what people are allowed to pay for lifesaving drugs can cost them their lives, as more fully explained in our letter to you of January 2, 2007, which, along with additional information, is posted on our website at www.nrlc.org/HealthCare/Index.html. Consistent with our 2003 scoring of the vote on the Medicare Modernization Act, NRLC intends to include in its scorecard of key pro-life votes for the 110th Congress the roll call on final passage of H.R. 4. We respectfully urge you to vote no on H.R. 4 this Friday.

Sincerely,

Wanda Franz, Ph.D., President

David N. O'Steen, Ph.D., Executive Director

Burke J. Balch, J.D., Director, Powell Center for Medical Ethics
National Right to Life Committee 202-626-8815; bbalch@nrlc.org

To view or download this letter in pdf format, click here.