About 35 people showed up at noon Thursday to Claire McCaskill’s St. Louis office at a rally organized by MoveOn. (There was another event at Bond’s office at the same time. Lotsa luck, folks, making inroads there.) After some of the attendees told the group their own hard luck health care stories, we presented a petition with about 2,000 signatures gathered online to Michelle Sherod, one of Claire’s staffers. The petition urged McCaskill to stand strong for a public option and resist letting it be watered down.
Ironies abounded in two of the stories that people had to tell. LaDonna Appelbaum works in the health care industry. And has no health care. This is a woman who’s not afraid to let her feelings show on the subject. She wants health care NOW.
As we head into the final two or three months of the push to get health care reform, here’s the message I’d like to convey to Claire: Do more than plan to vote for a strong public option. Be active. Beat the drums for it. Speak up at every opportunity. And make opportunities to speak up.
Because a strong public option is a foot in the door that might eventually open onto single payer. A strong public option–none of this co-op nonsense!–is the minimum. Once we have that, perhaps it will be–as it has been for other nations–just the starting point.
after what Darryl has been through and what he is still facing, he’d be justified in feeling pretty bitter about our health care “system”. Did you sense bitterness? I didn’t. I saw a tranquil, sweet natured person–with a valid complaint.
i.e., beat the drums for a strong public option–I should first have thanked her for her intention to vote for such an option. Let me do that now. Thank you, Senator McCaskill.
The strong public option will not evolve into a single payer plan. This has been publicly confirmed by Obama and K Sebelius. They have both stated that the public option will not be a trojan horse for single payer. That much is certain.
What is uncertain is the meaning of the term “strong public option”. Does that mean the Schumer light program or does it mean an “insurance cooperative” where everything is managed by an insurance company. Will it be tiered, means tested? Will it be worth the exorbitant amount that it will cost us? How will they pay for it? Or maybe it will be a well monitored, publicly funded program open to all comers. My guess on that is no.
As a single payer advocate and as one that has spent my working life as a front line provider, I am acutely aware of the complexity of the healthcare provision mechanisms but still I am always stunned at the difficulties and misconceptions people have regarding health care provision. I almost had apoplexy a few days ago when I heard Mr. O. himself refer to Medicare B as Medicaid B.
My great fear w. the public option plan is that a rosy glow will be painted over a substandard program, and that Americans won’t really know what they have bought until they bring it home and try to use it.
I would like to know Hotflash, what is your vision and your colleagues vision of a “strong public option” and how you plan to get there with that somewhat elusive term to guide you.
My intent here is not to vilify the public option and its supporters, I just want to clarify what people are willing to settle for.
Thanks
His aide said they just weren’t hearing from lots of constituents who wanted govt health care. We told her surveys showed over 70% of Americans want a public option and over 60% want single payer. She said “our numbers just don’t indicate that”.
We told her we wanted the same plan Brownback has. She said she has that plan and it is awful; she had better insurance when she was a teacher.
Here is a report in The Pitch of our rally and meeting:
http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/20…
although those Brownback supporter types are always the most visible, and probably most lucrative for the MSN, I truly believe that there has been a concerted and sustained high pressure push by both single payer advocates and public option supporters. I have followed the MSN and alternative news specifically to monitor the extensiveness and effectiveness of the effort. In my estimation both groups have worked tirelessly for health care reform.
We are acutely aware the the single payer position has been blacked out insofar as news. You can imagine our chagrin when all the WAHOO groups have to do is hiccup to receive full press coverage.
It is possible that the Republicans and the Blue Dogs in the Senate will try to hold the Democrats hostage to their “pay as you go” legislation passed in the last congress. It is too bad that Single Payer can’t get enough press to inform the public that SP is the ONLY “pay go” proposition available. In fact, SP is the only position the CBO has not been allowed to “score” to determine cost effectiveness.
Go figure.
I refer to more than just blogs,etc. There have been a gazillion call in campaigns organized by NNOC, PNHP, HealthJustice, Healthcare NOW, CNA and other organizations on behalf of Single Payer. I know that the PUBLIC OPTION supporters also have organized campaigns as I have received some of their requests.
It is only recently that I am noticing the racheting up of the old whine “I don’t want big government controlling my health care choices” as the other side switches into high rolling ads on TV and other highly visible places where more reactionary constituents are reached. And of course this view is also the most played in the main stream press.
I don’t believe we really know how the calls are running. All we know is what we are told. But then we know what the polls say and motivated people from reform orgs are more likely to call in than than the man on the street who is stopped for an opinion. There was a time when faxes from health justice were being returned by House Committees and phone lines are frequently closed down during the campaigns. I think the American public HAS spoken and now the industry is going to take them down.