Today, another friend of mine said she cannot afford her health insurance and will drop it..
I read a heartbreaking letter from another friend who has dangerous sleep apnea and cannot get insurance.
Health Care reform without a public option will not lower prices enough to help my friends.
Like many of you, I volunteered for President Obama believing he would bring real change to this country.
I cried as he was elected President. In the campaign he said he supported a robust public option as a critical
element for health care reform. Even this was a hard pill to swallow for most progressives. We have always wanted
a single payer system and elimination of the for profit insurance system. We were willing to take the public option as
a compromise.
But now President Obama has abandoned real health care reform. His aides have attacked public option reporters and in a
most appalling quote the president has said people on the left are "Obsessed with a public option".
Fine Mr. Obama. We will fight you too.
Don't expect millions of people to volunteer for your re-election if you turn "health care reform" into huge subsidies for the insurance industry.
Thankfully 60 House Democrats have put their collective foot down. They have told the White House and the Senate they will vote NO on any
bill that does not include a robust public option. THE AFL-CIO has already said they will sit out the next campaign if the Democrats waver on a public option.
Even Rachel Maddow and Keith Olberman have blasted your inability to do what is right on this issue.
So President Obama..... Do you want health care reform to pass? Do you want to get re-elected?
THEN DO WHAT YOU SAID YOU WOULD IN THE CAMPAIGN.
make him do it...
Call the White House.... 202 456-1414
Ask for the office of Linda Douglas, key health care point person
tell her the President must demand a real public option so that Americans can choose to escape from for profit insurance companies.
This is a life and death issue for millions of our fellow citizens.
My friend Michael Faulkner wrote a letter to Obama pleading with him to stand firm on a public plan.
here it is............
Dear Mr. President,
As a proud supporter of you, and Governor Howard Dean before you, I was deeply, profoundly saddened by your Secretary of HHS's comments over the weekend seeming to back-off from support for a public-option in the health care legislation.
I can only hope that such comments were a trial balloon to gauge public opinion on the necessity of the public option. What a tragedy the lack of a public option would be. I believe Co-Ops to be insufficient to solve the health care crisis.
Today ends 8 days of free health care provided to Greater Los Angeles, which saw as many as 8,000 insured, under-insured, and uninsured members of the general public give up countless obligations and stand in hours-long lines to receive the most basic healthcare procedures, what kind of message does it send to us that support for a public option is weakening IN THE WHITE HOUSE?
You ran your campaign on the theme of "Hope." I have Sleep Apnea, which requires expensive equipment or surgeries to treat, and is considered a "pre-existing condition" that excludes me from affordable healthcare. Yet it is hard to afford the equipment necessary to treat my condition without insurance. And I am not overweight -- the bad luck of genetics left me with what one doctor called "bad geography" in my esophagus that causes my condition.
The basic, inalienable rights our nation was founded on were life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I can tell you that living with a condition that you cannot afford to treat takes away one's happiness. I can tell you that I interpret the right to life as the right to a HEALTHY life.
I know you understand this and support the public option. Please don't let prevaricators and mediocre meddlers around you convince you to back away from supporting a public option. We need it. It will be good for American businesses, allowing them to compete with companies based in countries where healthcare is a right. It will be good for American workers, removing the burden of healthcare costs from their unions. And it will be good for all Americans, as we regain our sense of community and shared sacrifice. Please, Mr. President, don't take away my hope.
You ran on the theme of Hope. In the words of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who in some ways set the stage for you, please "keep hope alive."
Sincerely,
Michael Faulkner
If you agree with me, please take the time to write President Obama yourself. You can find out how right here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/
No comments:
Post a Comment