My Letter to Obama

Sent via White House.gov

I would like to voice my concern at the possibility of the dropping of a real public option for health care reform in favor of some sort of co-op, or the possibility of no public option at all.

I am from the heart of red country here in Tennessee.

Please do what is right for the country and include a real public option in whatever bill comes out of congress.

The republicans are not going to vote for health care reform.

This is not an issue where half or partial measures will do. If you do not do it now when you can make it happen we will not have the chance for quite some time to pick up where you leave off.

If Roosevelt had just decided to let the nay sayers win and had not established social security and medicare, but had went instead with a co-op to handle those two ends of his agenda we would not still be fighting to keep them today, they would not exist.

Republicans have been doing everything they can to erode public and private support for two of the most successful social programs of all time for the entirety of their existence. If they had their way social security would be privatized and ended and medicare would cease to exist.

These are the people you are FIGHTING and have been FIGHTING on this. They should not be the ones setting the agenda and the implementation.

While I agree that a feeling of mutuality and cooperation in government is important, at the end of the day you guys are the Progressives. You guys are the Democrats. Of course you have an agenda, so do they.

The public option IS the plan.

You promised health care reform, not insurance reform.

Insurance reform is important, but there will be no real Health Care Reform without a public option that cannot be bought out by private interests.

Give the Republicans the tort reform, give them a promise that the public option won't get special deals to undercut the private insurers. Compromise on those things, but give us a public option.

Give us a choice. The other guys aren't going to and never plan on it.

Republicans aren't going to vote for this no matter what, and if they do it's not the bill that you want or that America needs.

I have insurance. I also have a large medical bill that I will be paying on for at least the next two years because I had to go to the emergency room.

If you want me to be able to buy a car, or anything else that will help the economy, make it where I can go to the emergency room if I feel like I am dying and not still be on the hook for what is for me a huge amount even after the insurance pays their part.

Don't placate the people who can't be placated.

Be the President that gives us the next medicare, not just the guy who tried to get the ball rolling, the ball has been rolling for 40 years and hasn't gotten anywhere.