Dear _____:

I am glad that health care reform is part of your platform. But I don’t think your proposal goes far enough. Please take my request seriously, because I represent the majority of American households!

Your plan relies on employer-based insurance. Each employer can decide whether to cover employees’ family members, and how to define the relationships that constitute a family. Marital-status discrimination is an easy cost-containment strategy. Employer-based reforms are not universal because they leave unmarried people with less access to affordable, high-quality health care.

As you know, more unmarried people will come out to vote in 2008 than ever before. Unmarried people head the majority of households in the nation, and there are enough unmarried voters to swing any election. Health care is an unmarried issue. More than 14% of unmarried voters – and almost 20% of unmarried non-voters – were unable to pay for necessary care in the past year (compared to less than 5% of married voters).

As an unmarried person, I would support the candidate who proposes a truly universal system that separates health care from employment. Access to health care should not be determined by relationship or marital status.

Sincerely,

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Phone number or email address

I appreciate your work on health care reform, but I would like to see you address the insurance needs of unmarried people more directly.

In our current system, each employer can decide whether to cover employees’ family members, and how to define the relationships that constitute a family. Marital-status discrimination is an easy cost-containment strategy. Employer-based reforms are not universal because they leave unmarried people with less access to affordable, high-quality health care.

As a member of the Alternatives to Marriage Project, where 20% of the membership has experienced marital status discrimination with regard to health insurance. Most AtMP members are upset that their employers will not extend insurance to unmarried partners. Many different-sex couples are upset that their employers extend insurance only to unmarried same-sex partners. Some are seeking alternatives to marriage because marrying would cause them to lose their disability insurance or military survivors’ insurance. A small but significant number have married in order to get health insurance, and are upset that they were forced to compromise their values.

I hope your organization will incorporate the impact of marital status discrimination into your work on health care reform. If you’d like more information from AtMP, please visit www.unmarried.org.

Thank you,

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Phone number or email address