Tennessee State Legislators Rep. Tommie Brown, Rep. Kent Coleman, Sen. Beverly Marrero, (Secretary, General Welfare, Health and Human Resources Committee), Rep. Jeanne Richardson, (Member, Health and Human Resources Committee; Vice Chair, Subcommittee on Public Health and Family Assistance) and Rep. Johnny Shaw signed onto a letter along with 700 state legislator from every state, to the President, HHS Secretary Sebelius and leaders of Congress, asking them to support key ingredients for real health care reform. Today, a delegation of legislators from around the nation will be on Capitol Hill to meet with the White House and deliver the letter.

State legislators are at the forefront of good health care reform with states like Tennessee's TennCare, a government-operated medical coverage program for residents who are eligible for Medicaid and some uninsured children. CoverTN is an additional state program that covers TN small business owners.

From the letter:

Key priorities for reform are reflected in recent state initiatives and public opinion polls which show that Americans want more choices and options for quality health care. Americans recognize that the private sector alone has proven incapable of creating a high-quality, fair, and accountable health care system that works for all families. Therefore, a key priority for reform is the choice of a public health insurance plan that is available to businesses, individuals, and families.

These are elected officials who have been legislating on health care reform for years, and have a keen understanding of how burdensome our broken health care system is for state budgets and for people's pocketbooks.

Read the entire letter being delivered on the Progressive State Network's website.