While it's obvious many of you aren't concerned with the health and well being of your fellow Americans (I suppose "life" is the lesser of liberty and happiness in your views), I thought I'd offer some insight into the ramifications of an uncontrolled and greedy insurance industry.

Non-profits, the entities that Republicans so often praise as doing the work that government is incapable of, are realizing massive insurance premium hikes. In many cases, these increases exceed 35%, and I'm aware of at least two local organizations that were notified of 55% increases. Non-profits run on tight budgets as it is, and many aren't able to afford to subsidize the million dollar bonuses of insurance industry execs. That means that either non-profit employees will go without health care coverage (bear in mind we're talking about full-time hard who are passionately fulfilling needs in our community), or that the organizations will be forced to close their doors. Particularly in a community such as Butler, where the population is rapidly aging, a lapse in non-profit services will be felt severely. Everything from Meals on Wheels to transportation for grandparents with failing vision to drug prevention programs faces the probability of cuts in services and employees, if not the locking of their doors.

Why in such a tough economy are rates still increasing? This community clamors endlessly about teachers asking for small raises, but no one seems to care about health care rate hikes that will cost our businesses and non-profits tens of millions of dollars in Butler alone. What is wrong with our priorities?