US Postal Service: Failure

In just this week I have received statements from two medical providers referencing bills that I never received. One also referenced a bill that I did receive, and of course I received both of the statements. But the bills in question, two of them, each of which was sent first class mail, never reached my mailbox. The providers use the same computers to address the bills which did not arrive that they used to address the bill and statements that did arrive.

In one week, two items from two different places, sent via first class mail, were not delivered to me at all. They were not slow, or mangled in some way, they simply never arrived. In fact, people mailing things to me and me not receiving them is quite common.

I send a letter via First Class mail, US Postal Service, and I have no confidence at all that the letter will reach its destination.

If this were competition, then the Postal Service could perform poorly and we could choose to utilize a more reliable service, but such is not the case.

The law requires that the US Postal Service be used for such purposes. For those medical providers to send those bills by any other method would be against the law. The law gives the US Postal Service a protected monopoly, and then the US Postal Service does not deliver the mail. This is not about struggling or having a problem, this is not about losing money or rising prices, this is about the US Postal Service having utterly failed its mission. This is not a small problem, any kind of problem; this is complete failure.

The United States Postal Service is not delivering the mail.

Congress should change the law, removing the monopoly that the Postal Service enjoys, allowing us to use a more reliable service. The US Postal Service is a failure, not because it is losing money, but because it is not delivering the mail.