"Access to quality health care should be a right, not a privilege, and I absolutely believe the government has a role to play in the process. We need to address the issue of denying health-care coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. I believe we absolutely need to repeal the ban, passed by a Republican Congress in 2003, on letting the government negotiate with drug manufacturers for lower prices. I support the concept of single-payer health care and would support legislation in the House that presented a single-payer option for Americans."

These are exact quotes made in writing by congressional candidate Rep. Betsy Markey in 2008. So how do we rationalize Markey's vote against HR 3962, "The Affordable Health Care for America Act," which embodied most of these objectives? She said this legislation costs too much. Was she so naive to believe health-care reform would not cost anything?

During the past year, the Rocky Mountain Action Coalition has tried several times to meet with the congresswoman to understand where she now stands on senior's health-care issues. Her office refuses to meet, stating that many of our members are not in her district. They also do not answer letters asking the congresswoman to explain her new positions on health-care reform.

So we have a congresswoman that says one thing and does another on an important issue like health-care reform. Does she deserve another term in the House of Representatives?

John Kotson,
RMAC chairman, Fort Collins