I am a real person and I need a real Public Option

[Blue State Blues]

I've been following the health reform debate (or what passes for debate) with a growing sense of despair. So today, reading that the Public Option has been taken off the table and that real health reform is dying a death of a thousand cuts, I did something.

Instead of feeling helpless and depressed (the way I feel every year when I get the notice from my private insurance company that my premiums are once again increasing in the double digits but I have no choice other than to simply go uninsured), I did something.

It may not be much and it may not make a difference. But it felt good.

I wrote an email to the White House (I considered calling, but whenever I get on the phone my small children decide it is time to start making a lot of noise).

This is (more or less, because I don't remember the exact words) what I wrote:

Don't take the Public Option off the table!

Like millions of Americans, I don't just want a strong Public Option, I need one. I need a viable Public Option even though I would not qualify for it. Instead, I need a strong public option to provide competition so my private insurance premiums will become affordable.

I need a stong public option because I live in a community where too many have already been priced-out of coverage. I need a strong public option because I live in a country with an economy that is being stressed to the breaking point by soaring health care costs. I need a strong public option because I need to believe that our nation is capable of investing in the health of all its citizens.

Harry and Louise were actors. The shouting clowns at town halls are either willfully ignorant or deliberately misinformed, but just like Harry and Louise, they are reading from a script provided by the companies that stand to profit from the failure of real Heath Care Reform.

I am a real person. I need a real Public Option. Please don't take the Public Option off the table.

Like I said, I don't know if it will make a difference, but I feel better. And I'm inviting you to do the same.

Please, send an email or call and just say, in your own real words, "I'm a real person and ... I support a real Public Option," or "I want real Health Care Reform," or whatever comes to your mind. Write a paragraph, or just a sentence. Just do it.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. What do you mean by 'I would not qualify for it'? There is no proposed means test. The public

would be a part of the exchange and if you have private insurance now, you could switch to that provided via a public owned group.

[FarCenter]

2. People are under the illusion that the public plan would be either cheap or free

because it would be subsidized by tax revenues on some other part of the population.

That's not very likely to happen, and it will be almost as costly as private insurance. Either that, or a subsidized public plan will undercut the private insurers, all the employers will terminate their plans, everybody will flood the public plan, and there will be a huge hole in the national budget.

[Blue State Blues]

7. I am not under any illusions

The scenario you describe appears to assume that private companies are incapable of lowering their prices to meet competition. While it's true that I've only ever seen them raise prices, I think they are capable of lowering prices when provided incentive to do so.

I'm assuming merely that a strong public option running with administrative costs in line with the 6-8% that I've seen quoted for Medicare and without the requirement of generating enough profit to pay off investors and lobbying firms could provide a lower cost option.

But mainly, the purpose of this post was not to debate the proposals that may or may not be on the table, merely to encourage real people, like myself to take a few moments to speak up. If you oppose a Public Option on principle, you have the luxury of knowing that even if you say nothing, there are several lobbyists for each member of Congress already advancing that point of view.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. That is the 'strong' option -

the 'weak' option would be means-tested, would have cut-offs that would keep 'employer-based' financing of health insurance (which is a LIE in any case, as what the employer is paying the insurance companies, he is NOT paying YOU, so you are still paying your own health insurance - you just don't see the payment). The weak option sustains the insurance companies - the strong option undermines them.

We have yet to see which congress will opt for.

[FarCenter]

5. If an employer terminates their insurance plan

They most likely add it to pre-tax profits, not hand it out in paychecks.

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. Very true - which is why we need a STRONG public option.

One without means testing.

[southernyankeebelle]

4. Go to the next town hall meeting - it is our duty to suppose public option if you don't than

who will? Am going next Monday. I know I will probably be in the minority. But I don't care. I have socialized medicine and I can't understand why everyone can't have it. I am fighting for people that don't have any health care or bad coverage. It is up to us. Don't be afraid, go be respectful and say what you have to say.

[Blue State Blues]

8. I was looking for something I could do right now.

Thank you for going to the town meetings. I agree that it is important to directly confront the misinformation and show support. People, like you, who go to stand up for all of us are heroes, thank you.

Not everyone can go to a town meeting, however, so I was trying to think of something constructive that I could do right now. Some way that I could be heard, even if I can't go to a meeting.

[Blue State Blues]

9. Anyone else?

The Greatest Page. Wow.

Of course, what I hope this really means is that a few other people took a few minutes to write a few words (or call and say them). I hope you feel better, too.

[undeterred]

10. I wrote my reps and the WH earlier in the week

and I still feel a sense of despair. Not that one can post that here without being slapped around for it. I just don't think change will happen in time to help a lot of us...the change we need won't happen until after a complete economic collapse.

[Blue State Blues]

11. Don't feel bad ...

... despair is the natural state for a democrat. ;) Or maybe it was just the last 8 years.

Here's hoping it doesn't have to be. And thanks for speaking up!