It’s a little embarrassing, but it’s also one of the two most important causes facing the USA today, so I’ve written to President Obama again (an undertaking that has become uncannily like writing a letter to God). Â Not sparkling prose, so take this message, rewrite it your way and tell your representatives to get on the stick…
Dear President Obama:
Congratulations on all your success so far.
I’m writing with a simple request, and one I’m sure you’ve already heard: Don’t back down on a public option in the health-care plan. Â
Not long ago you were a fierce supporter of single-payer health care. I don’t understand why that’s off the table, even as a negotiating tool. But the public option should be absolutely non-negotiable, or else the plan is nothing but a full-employment act for private insurers. Â
Opponents of the public option talk out of both sides of their mouth. They say government can’t run an efficient system, then they say it will be so efficient that private insurers won’t be able to compete. I say: Let private industry prove it can compete against “bloated” government–and give Americans a true choice. Â
Finally, please ignore the nonsense about our needing an “American” plan–as if Americans were biologically different from everyone else in every other industrialized nation.
Stand firm, Mr. President. You can win this one–on principle!
best, Russell Miller
Amen!