The Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy For America will be airing this ad in Montana and Washington D.C., aimed at Max Baucus' (D-MT) and asking the simple question, "Whose side are you on?"
My name is Bing Perrine and I live here in Billings, Montana, with my beautiful wife and baby boy. Last June, I collapsed because of congenital heart problems. I need open-heart surgery, but I have no insurance and no company will insure me.
My friends and family have been a blessing. With hearts as big as a Montana sky, they have helped with bake sales and benefits. But my wife and I still owe over $100,000 in medical bills.
None of this debt would have piled up if I had the option of buying into a public health insurance plan.
Private insurance companies need competition. They profit by denying care to people like me.
Senator Baucus, when you take millions of dollars from health and insurance interests that oppose reform -- and oppose giving families like mine the choice of a public option -- I have to ask: whose side are you on?
It's a question that everyone should be asking their senator.
For more discussion, see Charles Chamberlain's diary.