I was going to do another WTF post, but I have seen signs of life. I want to be optimistic and I hope the things I have seen today are signs of things to come. I received the Obama facebook post asking me to put the "No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick." message in my status. I received a wall post from a friend saying something very similar. I then received a very detailed message from Senator Caseys Office describing the plan he worked on and its inclusion of a public option.
Here is an excerpt from that email:
To address the need for more choices for Americans, The Affordable Health Choices Act includes a public health insurance option called the Community Health Insurance Plan. This plan will be one of many plans available to individuals through the Affordable Health Benefit Gateways that will be established in each state. These gateways build on the success of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), which provides a range of different health plans from which to choose to federal employees including civilian employees, Members of Congress and their staffs, retirees and their families. The Community Health Insurance Plan will be required to comply with the same rules governing private plans offered through the health insurance gateways, and will comply with the same insurance regulations as private insurers.
I sent an email over two weeks ago and finally received this fairly detailed response, which seems to indicate a real committment to the public option. This is significant because Casey has not done anything to date that was inconsistent with Obama's positions. I am therefore taking this as an indication that they now have a plan and it includes a public option.
It seems like a good start to a campaign to try and get back the message and ram this through with a public option. I am going to take it that way and do my part this weekend to ramp it up as well. People realize we need reform and once they understand that the public option is just an option, and not a take over of the health care system, they have been more receptive to my points. It makes sense when you explain it in terms of Medicare. Our seniors can opt out of that any time they want - do they? Of course not! Insurance companies are bleeding the middle class and it will have to end sooner or later. We simply can't afford to wait.
I have been critical of Obama, and quite frankly he has deserved it. But he is our leader. His failure is our failure. His victory is our victory. If he is finally going to fight for what needs to be done, then I'll do my part to help him. We all should.