I received an email recently, as I'm sure many of you did, from the President's web site, asking for my vocal support of his health care reforms. Here's my response.
Dear Mr. President:
It still makes me giggle like a schoolgirl to be able to call you that.
When I cast my ballot for you on election day, I took a picture of it with my phone. I still have that picture, and I'm still proud of everything you've been able to accomplish, and everything we've been able to help you with. I truly believed, and still do, that we, as a people, were still capable of shaping our nation's destiny and changing it for the better.
The current health care reforms I hear being discussed by you and other politicians, however, do not appear to me to be anything but the most superficial of change. You could do something that would have my full-throated support for your health care reform, though - you could incorporate a publicly funded option. Not mandatory government-run health care, simply an option. Give the for-profit healthcare industry some competition - for in a capitalist, market-driven system, the surest road to innovation and improvement is competition. Without a public option, as much respect as I have for you, your health-care reforms will be nothing but a band-aid. As such, my support for them will be lukewarm at best.
I know you're an incrementalist. I know you don't believe the perfect should be the enemy of the good. I don't think that there's anything perfect about government run healthcare. I do think there's something good about competition in the marketplace. And, in my humble opinion, it is that good that should be the centerpiece of any health care reform.
Good luck, and God bless you.