No Public Option = No Mandate, Senator

Written by: Amy Dalzell on Sep 13, 2009 4:16 PM EDT

Sent to the Democratic members of the "Gang of Six" and Senator Snowe:

Dear Senator:

Recently President Obama sent out a message on You-Tube to his supporters asking us to get behind his health care plan; the message included a letter to our Congressmen asking for their support for reform. I signed that letter and am now sorry that I did.

I am rethinking my decision because the letter notably did not include the public option that would provide a guarantee to the people of competition in the insurance industry. That industry, of course, is trying to kill the idea, as are the Republican Party, the conservative DINO’s in the Senate and the maniac “tea-baggers.”

This morning on Meet the Press, I heard Senator Olympia Snowe, one of the so-called “Gang of Six,” claim that the option can’t pass the Senate, and therefore, should not be considered. Perhaps this is so, but if it is, another option must also be dropped – the mandate.

Forcing a mandate with no public option is tantamount to rewarding criminal insurance companies for being criminal and penalizing the public by leaving health care exclusively in the for-profit private sector. This is not only untenable - it’s immoral.

I know that the President has argued that the public option is just one means to the end of health care reform. This, however, cannot be justified with mandated private health care that would necessitate the creation of a whole new government bureaucracy (that will, in all probability, cost as much as the public option) to oversee regulating private insurance companies, which will in no time buy out that agency and gain the ability to screw over the entire public who will once again be left without options, trapped by law in a hopelessly corrupt system.

So, by all means pass legislation to rein in the current excesses of the private system; pass a plan to “provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance…
provide insurance to those who don’t…[a]nd lower the cost of health care
for our families, our businesses, and our government," as the President has said repeatedly; but any attempt at passing a mandate to accomplish this must be contingent upon the passing of the public option. The two must be debated together as a requisite pair for reform.

This is the ONLY equitable way of achieving universal care.

No public option = no mandate, Senator.

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Location: La Mesa, NM 88044