countdowntohealthcare.com

This weekend the future of the public option got a good deal of attention on the Sunday news shows.  The battle lines were made clear again.  A large majority of Americans want the competition and cost containment of the public option.  All Republican members of the House and Senate are acting like wholly owned subsidiaries of the health insurance industry and the president supports the public option, but seems to need our push.

But as this article correctly points out, if we fail to include the public option, it is more likely that the final product will confirm what the critics of universal health care have long argued. In short, if we have no public, the bill will not succeed and our chances of getting support to improve it in later years will be slim.

I am proud the petition we all launched on www.countdowntohealthcare.com now has nearly 50,000 signatories. We can  send an incredible signal to my colleagues if we all contact at least one friend and ask them to sign up. The truth is the public option is fighting for its life right now, and the more Americans who step up and say we need a public option in this bill, the better its odds of survival are. But that is a battle going on right now.

Keep up the fight,

Anthony