Letters to the Editor

The letters below are available for ADA members to submit to their local papers. Simply select the letter you want to send, fill in your zip code and ADA's system will ask you to which of your local papers you wish to send the letter.

You will be able to customize the letter however you wish and we encourage you to do so. Local papers are much more likely to run your letter if you relate it to a recent story or issue of concern to your community.

Fill in the information required by the paper and click send. It's that easy!

Employee Free Choice Act

If the government is serious about helping average working Americans get through the current economic crisis, the first thing they should do is pass the Employee Free Choice Act. The current system for forming a union is broken and allows businesses to easily deny workers the freedom to collectively bargain. For evidence of the arduous process, one only has to look at the more than 35% decline in union membership since the 1950s.

Much of the trouble in our economy can be traced to stagnant wages, Americans just can’t afford to buy things anymore. Union workers, however, earn 30% more than their non-union counterparts and are more likely to have employer paid health care and pensions. The solution to this crisis is not to make things harder for millions of American workers by encouraging wage and benefit cuts, but rather make the union job standard of living the goal. Put money in the pockets of people who will spend it. Passage of EFCA would do just that.

Want to send this letter on EFCA? Click here and follow the instructions.

Medicare for All

Private health insurance wastes $350 billion every year, enough to pay for high quality comprehensive health care for everyone. Nearly one-third of our health care costs today are eaten up by overhead: marketing, billing, denying coverage, hassling patients and doctors. While 30 cents of every dollar of health costs pays for overhead, Medicare costs 3 cents on the dollar. Paying for health insurance has become unaffordable for large and small businesses.

The many virtues of single-payer legislation include: 1) doctors’ only “paperwork” would be billing the government electronically, as they now do for Medicare. 2) Patients and taxpayers would benefit from negotiated prices of prescription drugs. 3) Electronic records would foster continuity of care and reduce medical errors. 4) Complete data would be available so a professional board could determine what treatments work and which don’t. 5) Doctors would emphasize prevention. 6) Hospitals would be paid based on a global budget negotiated to cover their costs, rather than current practice of billing for each aspirin and each test, thus cutting their paperwork.

Health care is a human right. We want free choice of a doctor, rather than choice of an insurance company. A single-payer system is an economic, medical, and moral imperative. The question isn’t whether we can afford to enact single-payer health care, it’s whether we can afford not to.

TRADE Act

In recent years, the trade model promoted by the U.S. government is one designed to ensure profit for corporate investors while exploiting workers and facilitating the movement of jobs to locations where wages are lowest and environmental laws weakest. The Trade Reform, Accountability, Development, and Employment (TRADE) Act is the right bill that addresses these urgent problems while leading us on a new and positive path for trade.

We urge you to make use of the model letter here, with any changes you choose to make, to write your Representative or Senator, asking him or her to be a co-sponsor of the bill.

Want to send this letter on the TRADE Act? Click here and follow the instructions.

Family Leave Insurance Act

At this time of economic crisis it is imperative that Congress pass the Family Leave Insurance Act, an addition to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993.

The FMLA was passed so that eligible workers across the country could take time off from their jobs to take care of the health of themselves and their loved ones, without fear of repercussions or job loss. While the bill helped millions of workers balance family and work, the Bill’s guarantee of only unpaid leave left 78% of the workforce (according to a 2000 survey) afraid or incapable of taking leave. The Family Leave Insurance Act would allow eligible employees to take 12 weeks of paid leave annually, and help employers by increasing productivity and loyalty.

I encourage others to stand in support of the Family Leave Insurance Act, and to persuade our elected leaders to follow suit, so that we may all reap the benefits of a safe, secure and healthy workforce.

Send this letter on the Family Leave Insurance Act by clicking here.

Tips for Writing Letters to the Editor (LTE)

Check your local paper's LTE Guidelines
Your LTE should respond to a recent letter, editorial or article you read in the paper
Be concise, most papers limit LTEs to 150-250
Open your LTE with a strong statement explaining why you are writing - it could be to point out an error, add facts or oppose a position
Use statistics, evidence and citations to support your argument
Avoid personal attacks
Try to relate your LTE to a local issue, editors are more likely to publish letters that deal with issues affecting their readers
Close with a statement you want the reader to remember

Contest!

ADA members are a persuasive crowd. Now, you can reach a national audience! Each month ADA will feature a letter to the editor written by an ADA member that other members can submit to their local papers using ADA's system. The topic must be of national importance, current and should follow all the guidelines mentioned above. In addition to having your letter featured here, winners will receive a commemorative ADA Inauguration Day 2009 canvas bag.

Submit your entries to letters@adaction.org.