1. United States
2. Pa.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to support federal legislation that would simplify cancellation processes and impose meaningful penalties on companies that overcharge consumers, particularly in the healthcare and insurance sectors. The current system allows corporations to profit from complexity while ordinary Americans bear catastrophic consequences. Consider the case of Ralph Coolman, a 62-year-old small-business owner from Ventura, California, who died of a heart attack in mid-June after an emergency room visit. His family received a bill for approximately $270,000 because an insurer made an administrative error when his wife Erika, a nurse, attempted to add him to her COBRA coverage during a job transition. She sent a check to cover his premium, but the company mistakenly added two months of coverage for her instead of enrolling Ralph. This responsible, insurance-conscious family now faces financial ruin due to corporate incompetence. The asymmetry in our current system is unjust. When consumers miss a payment or fail to follow complex procedures, they face immediate penalties, interest charges, and coverage denials. Yet when companies make errors that cost families hundreds of thousands of dollars, they face no consequences. This imbalance incentivizes corporate carelessness and punishes consumer diligence. I am asking you to champion legislation that would establish reciprocal accountability. Companies that overcharge or make administrative errors resulting in financial harm to consumers should face automatic penalties equivalent to what they impose on customers. Cancellation processes for insurance, subscriptions, and services should be federally mandated to be as simple as enrollment, requiring no more than a single phone call or online action. The Coolman family did everything right and still fell through the cracks of an unnecessarily complex system. Federal intervention is necessary to protect constituents from an economy built on annoyance and administrative mazes rather than genuine service. I urge you to prioritize consumer protection reform that holds corporations to the same standards they demand of their customers.