March 13th, 2010:

Congressman Alan Grayson

Re: Rep. Alan Grayson: HR 4789 and The Public Option: The Way Forward, Rep. Alan Grayson, Congressman Alan Grayson represents Central Florida (FL-8). Posted: March 12, 2010 01:42 PM

Congressman Grayson has laid out the argument for the Public Option in very simple wording. Health care is at a crises. Families are facing bankruptcy from medical care debt that big insurance companies refuse to pay. The people have been screwed by the insurance giants for too long.

Now we’ve learned that the Democrats are going to cave again to the Republicans and not include the public option in the reconciliation bill. There are efforts to whip enough votes in the Senate to pass reconciliation, but some of the votes aren’t concrete. Nancy Pelosi says that since the Senate does not have the votes, the Public Option will not be included.

It is time to vote on a stand-alone Public Option bill, and Rep. Grayson has introduced one.

Rep. Grayson:

Health care reform — here’s where we are. The House of Representatives is about to vote on a Senate bill without a public option. It looks like the reconciliation amendment will not have a public option. The House bill had a public option, but once the House passes the Senate bill, that’s history.

Which is why I introduced H.R. 4789, the Public Option Act. This simple four-page bill lets any American buy into Medicare at cost. You want it, you pay for it, you’re in. It adds nothing to the deficit; you pay what it costs.

Let’s face it. Health insurance companies charge as much money as possible, and they provide as little care as possible. The difference is called profit. You can’t blame them for it; that’s what a corporation does. Birds got to fly, fish got to swim, health insurers got to rip you off. And if you get really expensive, they’ve got to pull the plug on you. So for those of us who would like to stay alive, we need a public option.

In many areas of the country, one or two insurers have over 80% of the market. They can charge anything they want. And when you get sick, they can flip the bird at you. So we need a public option.

And they face no real competition because it costs billions of dollars just to set up a national health care network. In fact, the only one that’s nationwide is . . . Medicare. And we limit that to one-eight of the population. It’s like saying that only seniors can drive on federal highways. We really need a public option.

And to the right-wing loons who call it socialism, we say, “if you want to be a slave to the insurance companies, that’s fine. If you want 30% of your premiums to go to ‘administrative costs’ and billion-dollar bonuses for insurance CEOs who figure out new and creative ways to deny you the care you need to stay healthy and alive, that’s fine. But don’t you try to dictate to me that I can’t have a public option!”

And there is a way left to get it. By insisting on a vote on H.R. 4789. Three votes on health care, not two. The Senate bill, the reconciliation amendments, and the Public Option Act.

We got 50 co-sponsors for this bill in two days. Including five powerful committee chairman. But we need more.

Sign our Petition at WeWantMedicare.com.

Call. Write. Visit. Do whatever you can do to get your Congressman to co-sponsor this bill, and push it to a vote. Right now, before it’s too late.

Let’s do it!

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