Dear Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray,
I've called your Washington D.C. offices, and your local Washington State offices all year last year, and this spring, too.
I understand that you need to determine the value of prospective legislation, before you are willing to make a public statement of your opinion of such legislation - and whether or not you will support it.
I've been patient.
But it's long past time where responses from your staffers that "the Senator is considering the issue" is a sufficient answer.
Where do you stand on healthcare reform - with your constituents or with the Insurance industry?
Washington is a diverse state, as a life-long resident of Clark County, I am well aware of this fact.
We are, as a state, a microcosm of the nation as a whole.
We have a major metropolitan area in the Seattle-Tacoma corridor.
We have small towns and rural agriculture in eastern Washington, from Yakima to Spokane and south to the wheat fields that grow atop the land that runs to the mighty Columbia River.
We have high technology manufacturing around the state (Microsoft in Redmond, HP in Vancouver, for example).
We have some of our nation's still pristine wilderness areas throughout the Olympic Penninsula and throughout the state in our numerous State and National Forests (such as the Gifford Pinchot, where Mount St. Helens is located).
We have a population as diverse as our land - with a number of Native American tribes (Salishan,Yakima,Kathlamet,Chehalis, Chelan, Chinook and Clallam to name just a few); immigrants from the Pacific Rim (Chinese, Japanese, Pacific Islander and Filipino), Eastern Europe (Poland, Ukraine), Russian and Latino (from across Central and South America).
Seattle and it's environs have been politically more liberal than the rural Eastern counties, and Southwest Washington has been on the cusp between conservative and liberal for decades now.
So, yes, there are a whole host of viewpoints held by the constituent of the our state.
But Senators, I say to you today, "It's time to step up and take a stand".
Recently, reports of horrendous increases in private healthcare insurance premiums (up to 39% for some in California from Anthem Blue Cross) were announced. Other reports of similar increases across the nation soon followed.
Our Healthcare Insurance system is falling apart.
Our nation needs some leadership.
Our people need access to affordable healthcare insurance.
If you, and your colleagues in the US Senate are unable to provide, as ever other industrialized nation does, a national healthcare system for our people; via a Single Payer national plan or a public/private hybrid - then the very least that you can do is ensure that we can buy a policy that doesn't waste up to 30% of our money on million dollar CEO salaries and multi-million dollar advertising campaigns.
Starting today, I'm not asking anymore.
I'm demanding that you do the right thing.
Sign Senator Bennet's letter to the Majority Leader.
Provide us a Publicly sponsored Healthcare insurance plan - one free from the machinations of the profits-driven private insurers.
Give The People a chance to live without the fear of bankruptcy from the unbearable costs of a serious medical condition.
Stop letting over 40,000 of our fellow Americans die this year, and every year, because they don't have the money to pay the cost of the insurance that is available to them today.
For pity's sake, Senators - listen to your conscience.
Sign the letter and vote for a better healthcare system for all of us.
[h/t to mrobinson for this Youtube of Sen. Maria Cantwell @ Senate Finance Committee Hearing September 29, 2009]
and this link to the latest poll on the Public Option by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which shows Washingtonians as:
What would make you more likely to vote for Democrats in the 2010 elections: If they pass health care reform that includes a public health insurance option but gets zero Republican votes OR if they pass health care reform without a public option but with some Republican votes?
WASHINGTON (Murray, Cantwell)
FIGHT BIPARTISANSHIP NOT SURE
ALL 61% 25% 14%
INDEPENDENTS 69% 17% 14%
OBAMA VOTERS 80% 8% 12%
QUESTION: Would you favor or oppose the national government offering everyone the choice of buying into a government administered health insurance plan -- something like the Medicare coverage that people 65 and older get -- that would compete with private health insurance plans?
WASHINGTON (Murray, Cantwell)
FAVOR OPPOSE NOT SURE
ALL 65% 28% 7%
INDEPENDENTS 67% 25% 8%
OBAMA VOTERS 79% 11% 10%
QUESTION: What comes closer to the lesson you think Democrats should learn from the recent Senate election in Massachusetts, where the seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy was won by a Republican: "Voters want Democrats to slow down and try to do less." OR, "Voters are upset about the slow pace of change - and will hold Democrats accountable if they refuse to use their power to fight special interests on behalf of regular people."
WASHINGTON (Murray, Cantwell)
MORE CHANGE SLOW CHANGE NOT SURE
ALL 56% 23% 21%
INDEPENDENTS 60% 17% 23%
OBAMA VOTERS 77% 10% 13%
[h/t to jsdad for the link to these quotes directly from the Senator's own websites!]
Patty Murray:
The Current Health Care Reform Debate
Faced with the critical fight on health care, Senator Murray has become a leading voice on meaningful reform. She believes that families deserve the promise that if you get sick or lose your job, you won't lose your health care – and that you should be able to get health care if you have a pre-existing condition. That is why she continues to believe that a public option is the best way to lower costs long term, and ensure stable and portable coverage. Senator Murray knows that if you're not part of the solution, you are a part of the problem -- and that's why she's fighting for real health care reform, this year.
[emphasis added]
Maria Cantwell:
Improving Competition through a Public Option
I believe a robust public option needs to be part of health care reform. Currently, there is little competition in the health insurance industry. In fact two insurance companies, and sometimes a single company, can dominate the marketplace in most communities. Allowing people to choose between a public option and a range of private insurance companies would improve competition, resulting in better coverage for a better price. I support a public option that is accountable to the people and available nationwide. If such an option is not included in draft legislation, I will work to add one to any health reform bill before the Finance Committee or on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
[emphasis added]
Senators, it's time to walk the talk