countdowntohealthcare.com

The public option is the most unlikely underdog in Washington.  As I mentioned last week, there are five versions of health care reform currently under consideration in Congress.  Only one doesn’t have the public option.  But there’s a real risk we may end up with a final bill that doesn’t include the public option.

This just isn’t common sense.  And it isn’t democracy, either.  The Washington Post released a poll today that shows a strong majority (57 percent) of Americans support a public option.

We already know that a majority of Representatives in the House support a public option.  And we know that at least 52 Democratic Senators support a public option.

Right now, it seems like the only opponents of the public option are a couple of Republican senators.  Are we really going to let Senators Charles Grassley and Olympia Snowe keep a public option out of health care reform?

Let’s stick with the majority on this one.  Two voices shouldn’t be enough to block what most of America wants.

Anthony

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

“Merger talks” used to be a term you only read on the business pages, but today all the chatter around Washington is about how the five health care bills will be merged into the one that my colleagues and I will eventually send to the President. We all know, that there are stronger and weaker advocates for the public option in those negotiations.  We need to bolster our allies and prod our, uh, less vigorous friends.

Last night, Keith Olbermann opened his show with a reminder that some folks on Capitol Hill seem not to understand the strong support for the pubic option that exists out there in the real world.  This is exactly why it is so important that we nudge our way into these “merger talks” with our voices.

I’d like to take the floor of Congress next week to announce that we have 50,000 signatures on our petition for the public option. We already have 40,000 supporters, so help me spread the word.

Anthony

Now that the Senate Finance Committee has finished its work, there are now five versions of health care reform that have to be merged into a final version. Four other committees – three in the House of Representatives and one other in the Senate – have passed bills that include a public option to give consumers choice and give insurance companies competition.

So if you were in charge of merging five bills and 80% of them had one element in common, doesn’t it stand to reason that the final product would have it?  Common sense may take a back seat to raw politics here.

I’ll keep you posted on the negotiations, but one thing is certain – if Americans stand up and speak up for a public option, my colleagues and the President will hear the call.  More than 30,000 have signed their names to the public option petition drive.  Add your name.  Tell your friends.  Heck, you can even tell your enemies.  I’m sure they want choice and competition too.

Anthony

Today was another big day on the road to health care reform.  The Senate Finance Committee approved Senator Max Baucus’s health care proposal, bringing a reform bill one step closer to a full vote on the Senate floor.

I’ve been pretty critical of this proposal in the past.  It doesn’t include a public option, which is the only way to provide real competition to big insurance companies and bring down costs so that all Americans can choose quality, affordable health care.

But this is progress.  Even the insurance lobby isn’t happy that this bill is moving forward.  As I mentioned yesterday, that’s probably as good a sign as any that we’re taking the right steps towards a health care system that helps American families instead of insurance company shareholders.

This slow march won’t be complete without a true public option.  It may not be center stage today, but like a specter in a Shakespeare play, it looms large.

Anthony

P.S. New York Magazine calls me the “loudest and noodgiest” supporter of the public option.

Help me “noodge” my colleagues and the White House in the right direction. Use the button below to link to this site on your Facebook and Twitter.

Put this one in the “obvious” category. Today’s papers reveal that the health insurance industry is not happy that reform is moving (inching?) closer by the day.

Well, if that pig isn’t squealing, we are probably doing something wrong.

Health insurance companies make money when they take in as much as they can and pay out as little as they can. Their shareholders demand profits, not necessarily high quality health care.

That is why we need some force to compete with them that is not driven by profits. We need the public option.

A commentator recently introduced me as the “health insurance industry’s least favorite person.”

I can live with that.

Anthony