Social Security

I just wrote my Congresspersons (again) about healthcare. After a weekend of bad news concerning Democratic waffling, it is imperative that we progressives get online, in the mail, and on the phone to our representatives and demand that a strong public option be included in the final health care bill. Kathleen Sebilius, and even the President himself have seemingly backed away from the public option the last few days. News outlets are now accusing President Obama of backing away from the battle for health care reform. There has never been a more critical time to get active and turn our representatives back to the public option.

I used the web site, Congress.org to create and send my email to Congress. You can do the same. If you are stuck on what to say, here is what I told them. Maybe you can make your letter stronger:

I want to tell the Democratic leadership that if we do not have a strong public option for the poor to choose, the poor will continue to be uninsured, co-op or no. We will have wasted the best opportunity in half a century to fix the broken health care industry in America.

Ideally, there should be a single-payer system in the U.S.. A single-payer system like “Medicare for all” would eliminate the need for the VA medical system and TriCare for active duty military and retirees. A single payer health system would also eliminate the need for Medicaid and Medicare. Funds now allocated for those health services could easily be transfered into a single payer system.

Having a strong public option has drawn the ire of the insurance industry, of course, but so did Medicare. Once established, after all the hate speeches and socialist propaganda, Medicare has become settled in our society and an extremely popular part of the elderly Americans safety net equal with Social Security.

The reconciliation process must be used to pass the public option. We do not have the luxury of playing cat and mouse for Republican votes that are not going to be there at the end no matter what is in the final bill. Just pass the bill. It will fit into our system nicely like Social Security and Medicare. Initiate the reconciliation process for the final bill and by pass the filibuster clearing the way for a majority vote.  Americans will come to depend on public health like they do Medicare and it will become a bedrock in our society. This is our time to make change happen.

Or, you can go to my Act Now! page and follow the directions there. We need your involvement. Please contact your representatives today.