Shock of shocks. Today Thom Hartmann encouraged President Obama to kill the public option. I was in disbelief until I heard his proposal. Meanwhile, our great WI senator, Russ Feingold, has come out strongly in favor of the public option. These two positions may not be mutually exclusive.
Thom Hartmann proposes killing all talk of the "public option," which is essentially re-inventing the wheel. Instead, he suggests "Medicare for those who want it" with payment on a sliding scale so that it is deficit neutral. No new bureaucracy. No "death panels." No reason to bring talk of abortion into the debate. It's brilliant. Who is going to vote against Medicare? His whole open letter to Obama is posted at Common Dreams. But I love this beginning:
...let's make it simple. Please let us buy into Medicare.
It would be so easy. You don't have to reinvent the wheel with this so-called "public option" that's a whole new program from the ground up. Medicare already exists. It works. Some people will like it, others won't - just like the Post Office versus FedEx analogy you're so comfortable with.
Just pass a simple bill - it could probably be just a few lines, like when Medicare was expanded to include disabled people - that says that any American citizen can buy into the program at a rate to be set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which reflects the actual cost for us to buy into it.
Meanwhile, Sen. Russ Feingold wasted no time in stating his unequivocal support for the public option:
"A public option is a fundamental part of ensuring health care reform brings about real change. Opposing the public plan is an endorsement of the status quo in this country that has left tens of millions of Americans uninsured or underinsured and put massive burdens on employers. I have heard too many horror stories from my constituents about how the so-called competitive marketplace has denied them coverage from the outset, offered a benefit plan that covers everything but what they need or failed them some other way. A strong public option would ensure competition in the industry to provide the best, most affordable insurance for Americans and bring down the skyrocketing health care costs that are the biggest contributor to our long-term budget deficits. I am not interested in passing health care reform in name only. Without a public option, I don’t see how we will bring real change to a system that has made good health care a privilege for those who can afford it."
This fight is not over, unless we let it be. We need to keep calling, keep writing, keep speaking truth to the nonsense that is out there. Call the DNC and its respective fundraising committees. Thank the Progressive Dems--and Pelosi--for standing strong for the public option.
Now is not the time for Chicken Little-dom.