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Right from the very beginning the media has proudly reported that Congress and the White House have been meeting with all the "major stake holders" to produce health care legislation. A closer examination of those attending, however, has revealed that the PUBLIC was not represented. Is it any wonder then that this year long debate on health care (now changed to insurance) reform has been framed and managed by the special interests?
President Obama's campaign rhetoric of "solving the healthcare crisis", "containing costs" and providing "universal" coverage to everyone was quickly hijacked by the insurance industry and replaced with "providing competition" to private insurance policies. Who in the public ever said anything about providing competition? The public just wanted INEXPENSIVE quality insurance for everyone. Period.
Rep. Grayson's (and similarly Kucinich's) "Medicare Option" would allow people to purchase insurance from Medicare at cost. The Medicare Option essentially was the original "Public Option" until the insurance lobby got it watered down to the current ineffective version, because they said the Medicare Option would have an "unfair" competitive advantage. Hello! When did corporate America ever complain about Wal-Mart's unfair advantage over smaller competitors or small town mom and pop stores? In Switzerland, insurance companies are only given a 5% "commission" for handling the government-regulated insurance that covers all basic healthcare needs. Their insurance companies actually have to compete on quality of service to get your business. American insurance companies get a 15-20% "commission" and have every incentive to provide poor service to sick people.
Unfortunately, as admirable as it seems, the Public Option being pushed by the DCCC and members of Congress is a scam. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has said that the current Public Option "will cost more than a comparable private policy", and as a result will optimistically attract virtually no subscribers, "zero to 6 million". That does not meet the criterion set by the public for low cost insurance.
Every major poll since 2003 has shown that at least 60% of the participants wanted a universal government-run insurance program. The insurance industry and other special interests sponsored protesters screaming "death panels', "socialism', and "government healthcare take-over." Those interests have given the media the cover they've needed to be complicit in drowning out what the majority of America really wants. The truth is that all the health care providers remain privately operated, and the Medicare Option only provides a mechanism to (1) spread the financial risks of the ever more expensive healthcare costs to the widest possible pool of people, (2) prevent healthcare-related bankruptcies, and (3) provide insurance to nearly everyone. These facts are not reported by the media and get covered up by the media "noise".
It's not too late! But we must be the ones to spread the word quickly because certainly the complicit main stream media will not. We must expose the Public Option Scam, and DEMAND that the [Grayson] Medicare Option be included in the 'reconciliation' bill!
We must make it very clear to the President and the Democratic Congress that they will be held accountable come November if they do not provide what the majority of the American people want.
