An article in last week's Des Moines Register expressed hope that the public health plan option for the upcoming health care reform legislation is still within reach:
Senator Grassley has been working hard to craft a health care legislation bill that works for everyone, and we applaud his considerable effort in the cause for quality, affordable health care reform. However, now is not the time to sacrifice the public health plan option for the sake of political compromise.Health care legislation taking shape in the Senate is expected to be a mix of expanded public and private insurance plans, despite strong Republican resistance to a new government-run program, leaders of a key committee said after a marathon session Thursday.Democrat Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, the committee's ranking Republican, expressed optimism that compromise remained within reach. They held a joint briefing after an eight-hour, closed-door meeting of the committee, at which members aired concerns about coverage options.
According to report recently released by Senator Charles Schumer and Health Care for America Now, a public health care plan option is integral to keeping the price of private insurance reasonable, and ensuring the greatest amount of choice for consumers. In our fight to fix our broken health care system, we must work towards legislation that offers the greatest amount of coverage and choice, for everyone.
Your support can make a difference. Senator Grassley is listening, and your voices are being heard.
Write Senator Grassley in support of the public health plan option today:
http://action.seiu.org/page/speakout/HCgrassley
