Programs like Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage are another way that conservatives have been trying to destroy the program, by eroding popular support. Under a national comprehensive system, we cannot have a "doughnut hole" for prescriptions. The large pharmaceutical companies have been running roughshod over consumers and their wallets for much too long. As I have written elsewhere, I have nothing against making a profit. I have everything against profiteering at the expense of taxpayers and sick and suffering people.
Unfortunately, even if George Washington and Abraham Lincoln came down from Mount Rushmore, engraved tablets of lapis lazuli clenched in their hands, and said, "Engraved upon these tablets by Divine Providence is a perfect single payer healthcare bill, and the Almighty has sent us to see that it becomes the law of this Great Nation," I do not believe that we will get single payer healthcare passed by this Congress. The servants of Mammon, false idol of avarice, still reign supreme in the District of Columbia, and only a further voters' revolution in 2010, casting out these possessed servants of the Evil One (Corporate Power), will permit our complete triumph.
It is, however, imperative that we get our foot in the door with the final health insurance reform bill. And that means making certain that a public option is part of the final bill. We must make it crystal clear to the Congress and the White House that any bill that does not include a true (buying into Medicare) public option, is not only not acceptable, but will end any financial support by the voters for those who vote against a public option, and the beginning of a grassroots movement to find a person who will listen to the voice of the American people.
Because any Health Insurance Reform Act that does not include a real public option, is the moral equivalent of putting a band aid on a sucking chest wound.
