DO SOMETHING: The public option is not optional

If we don't make a stand now for a public option, the Obama administration may hedge on its plan for health care reform.

This weekend, the Obama administration indicated that it might be open to passing health care reform without any provision for a public insurance option similar to Medicare that could compete with private insurance companies.

President Obama said that a public option was just a "sliver" of his plan. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius went so far as to say that the public option was not an "essential" part of reform.

The comments this weekend by the president and Secretary Sebelius rhetorically pave the way for the Obama administration to cave on a meaningful public option and instead accept toothless regional health care co-ops that would be unable to compete with insurance companies and keep them honest.

I just signed a petition to tell President Obama that the public option is not optional and that he should tell Congress and the voters that he will not sign a bill without a robust public option similar to Medicare.

I hope you will sign this petition too. Please have a look and take action.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/publicoption_bo/?r_by=5558-1491287-coXuTpx&rc=confemail