Our family’s health insurance premiums have risen more than 50% in the last 5 years and our deductible doubled again this year. While our out-of-pocket health care costs have skyrocketed, we’ve had no choice but to watch helplessly as our insurer has repeatedly limited our coverage and reduced our benefits. Like many Americans with pre-existing medical conditions, shopping around for a better deal on health insurance just isn’t an option for me. As dissatisfied as we may be with our insurance, we live in fear of losing it since we know that it would be impossible to replace in the current market. Given all this, it seems clear to me that the public option would be a vitally important component of any meaningful health care reform package.
Fortunately for the American people, it looks like we may now have an opportunity to revive the public option. In recent weeks, 34 senators and 120 members of the House have signed letters asking Congress to pass a public option through ‘reconciliation’ — a procedure that just requires a majority vote in the Senate. Polls consistently show that the majority of Americans want the public option (59% to 29% in the latest New York Times poll) and that support extends across party lines (80% of Democrats, 59% of Independents, and even 33% of Republicans). Besides being popular with the American people, the public option is the best option on the table to curb the skyrocketing health care costs that are putting so much strain on the budgets of American families and small businesses. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the various public option proposals in the House would save at least $25 billion without adding a dime to the national debt. Just as importantly, a public option would create competition in our health insurance market. If consumers were dissatisfied with the prices or service offered by private insurers, they’d have another choice. We need the public option to help keep the insurance companies in check.
There are several petitions circulating now to demonstrate citizen support for the public option. If you agree that the public option is vital to meaningful health care reform, please take a moment to sign:
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