No public option — this is what we’ve been waiting for?
Sen. Max Baucus had a clear choice — the American people or the health insurance industry.
As head of the Senate Finance Committee working on one of the most important issues of our lifetime, his choice was real health insurance reform that ends the stranglehold insurance companies have on us, or selling out to the health industry, which has given him $4 million in campaign cash.
He sold out. The bill he unveiled today is garbage. It’s a massive giveaway to his health insurance masters. It includes a mandate forcing millions of Americans under threat of penalty to buy the garbage product of his largest contributors. Worst of all, the Baucus bill doesn’t have a public option of any kind.
The Baucus bill is a boondoggle, and it must be stopped.
Click here to sign our petition asking Sens. Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold to reject the Baucus Boondoggle. No public option. No way.
Senators Kohl and Feingold have both publicly expressed support for the public option, and we want to let them know how strongly we feel that the Baucus Boondoggle without a public option is not option.
This summer, Sen. Kohl wrote, “ideally, I think health reform should include some type of public option.” And Sen. Feingold said, “I am not interested in a bill that allows us to somehow tell our constituents we have done something but doesn’t really address their concerns. We need real reform, and real reform means a strong public option.”(3)
Your senators need to hear you oppose the Baucus Boondoggle — any bill that does not include a public option and protects heath insurance companies instead of the American people should be sent to the dustbin.
You know the stats. Health insurance premiums rising at three times the rate of inflation. Over 47 million Americans without health care. The number one reason for bankruptcy in America. Three out of four medical bankruptcies are people who had health insurance when they got sick.
Without a public option, private insurance industry will be allowed to continue its stranglehold on the American people. Speak out today and make sure Sens. Kohl and Feingold know how you feel — NO to the Baucus Boondoggle.
Max Baucus said he was negotiating with Republicans to craft this bill, yet not a single Republican has said they support it. Who was Baucus listening to then? More likely, it was his health insurance donors.