I just got an email from MoveOn. Some of you may have gotten it as well. I'll just cut to the main thrust of this email:
Since taking office, President Obama hasn't said much about a key plank of health care reform: the public health insurance option. Some worried he had backed off from his support of it.
Who would that be? The health insurance industry? If we pass the public option, they will use it to dump their most expensive customers onto the taxpayers. Then, the public option will become burdensome and require higher deductibles and copays. It will not be competitive with the insurance industries. Then the right will point to it as a failure and a taxpayer burden and proof positive that no public healthcare system is viable.
Far from being a step towards Single Payer, it will be the death knell of Single Payer.
And this horrifying email from an organization I thought we could all trust just gets worse. It, and my reply, after the fold.
Yesterday, all that changed. Obama said: "I strongly believe that Americans should have the choice of a public health insurance option operating alongside private plans. This will give them a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep insurance companies honest." 1
This is a huge deal. It's Obama using some of his massive political capital to take a crucial stand
.
A crucial stand? He's basically selling out the only solution to the healthcare crisis and kowtowing to the healthcare industry! MoveOn thinks this is a crucial stand? For whom? Not for us, that's for sure!
A public health insurance option is the heart of real health care reform. And with the right wing united against it, we need to show Congress just how many Americans stand with Obama on this. Can you sign the petition supporting Obama and the public health insurance option?
The right wing would stand against ANYTHING! ANYTHING Obama or the Dems proposed. You see, there's this thing called the Overton Window and what Obama, with this statement, and Baucus before him have done is try to move the Overton Window away from Single-Payer and towards The Public Option. What the Republicans are doing by fighting even The Public Option is to strengthen the move away from discussion of the only viable solution to the healthcare crisis: Single Payer.
I'm sorry, but why the hell would I sign a petition for an option that is no option at all? MoveOn do you have a clue? Who's side are you on anyways?
This is a critical moment on health care. A key Senate committee is just days away from releasing a first draft of reform legislation, and the right-wing attacks are aimed at making sure it's watered down.
Yes, I agree, it IS a critical moment on health care. Emphaisis on that last word because insurance is not care. What Americans need is health care, not a peice of shit insurance option that the next Republican president will eviscerate anyways and in the meantime won't do a thing to change the crime that is the health insurance industry. Watered down? Are you kidding me? The Public Option, by it's very existence, is a watered down alternative to Single Payer!
It doesn't get anymore "watered down" than that MoveOn.
But if hundreds of thousands of us speak up, we can show Congress that Americans demand real health care reform with a strong public health insurance option. As the President also said yesterday, "In 2009, health care reform is not a luxury. It's a necessity we cannot defer."
Here's an idea: How about if hundreds of thousands of us speak up and show Congress that Americans demand real health care reform with NO insurance option of ANY kind! Because what Obama said is true, it's a necessity we cannot defer.
Sign the petition today and show Congress that Americans stand with President Obama on health care reform. Clicking here will sign your name:
Forgive me if I don't include your link MoveOn. What you've sent me I find unforgivable. So instead, I believe it's time we sent a message to YOU, MoveOn:
Stop supporting the Public Option and get your asses behind Single Payer!
So to send that message I suggest you click on THIS link:
http://www.moveon.org/...
That's the link to unsubscribe to MoveOn. And when they reply, and they will, explain to them WHY you feel MoveOn no longer represents the progressive movement and why you think they've sold out to the insurance industry.
Oh, and this was my reply:
What Obama said really disappointed me. That MoveOn is touting it as something good disappoints me even more. The public health insurance option is a total cop out. What Americans need is not more health insurance, what they need is more health CARE.
Single Payer is the only option we should be discussing. The public option is smoke and mirrors. What it will result in is the insurance industries taking on the healthy americans, whom they will still deny coverage for, while the american taxpayer will be left footing the bill for the high end customer that will be what qualifies for public health insurance.
It's a losing proposition and MoveOn should know better than to try to put lipstick on a sow.
Ignore the heinous insurance industry ad below.
