Who is going to vote for the Public Option, and who isn’t? That is the question. Everyone who supports health care reform says that, without a public option health care reform will not reduce costs. That means it will be worthless. The key to universal health care and better, reliable health care is to reduce the monopolistic powers of the health insurance industry. Most Democratic Senators support that.
Those who do not…at present…include Senator Max Baucus of Montana, Senator Tom Carper of Delaware, Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, (whose wife sits on the Board of Wellpoint…one of the biggest Healthcare violators of human rights…why is he a Democrat? Do we need a charismatic challenger in Indiana?), Senator Bill Nelson of Florida and Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska (heavily involved with the health insurance industry. We definitely need a more populist candidate in Nebraska. And there are more.
Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut (involved with insurance industry BIG TIME), Kent Conrad of North Dakota, who says it won’t pass so he won’t vote for it, (Good. Don’t vote for him. If all of you in North Dakota simply say he can’t be re-elected, he won’t be, so don’t waste your vote for him.) Mary Landrieu of Louisiana says she will not vote for it. If all of those who have said that they are against it. If those Democrats vote against a public option…which means–no other interpretation–that there will NOT be any kind of meaningful health care reform.
Here are the numbers. There are 59 Democratic senators now that Senator Kennedy has passed away. The number above comes to 10. That means we would have only 49 Democratic Senators, including the vote of Senator Sanders who is in favor of the public option. We need 51 votes. Which means that one of those senators would have to switch and the Vice President would have to break the tie.
So it is important that we contact the offices of these Senators and others to let them know that we the People, want a public option to our health care reform program and that the penalties for ignoring the people in favor of the health insurance companies, now feeding them with tens of thousands up to even millions of dollars in campaign funds will not be enough to save them from the wrath of a people, who, 76%, say that they have had enough of all the old insurance industry scams.
Here are the phone numbers of some of the mentioned Senators. Call their offices and let them know how you feel. You can count on the fact that others, your counterparts in the paid lobbying segment of the health care industry are calling right now, pretending to be a different person each time, so that Senators will think that there are a much greater number of opponents to health care than there actually are. You must call to protect your own interest because Senators want to hear from you. If this does not pass, and few people call, they will have every excuse to say that the people really did not want health care, which we all know is not true.
Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas — lincoln.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm — (202) 224-4843
Evan Bayh of Indiana — bayh.senate.gov/contact/email/ — (202) 224-5623
Michael Bennet of Colorado — bennet.senate.gov/contact/ — (202) 224-5852
Mark Begich of Alaska — begich.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm — (202) 224-3004
Tom Carper of Delaware — carper.senate.gov/contact/ — (202) 224-2441
Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota — conrad.senate.gov/contact/ — (202) 224-2043
Maria Cantwell of Washington — cantwell.senate.gov/contact/ — (202) 224-3441
Ron Wyden of Oregon — wyden.senate.gov/contact/ — (202) 224-5244
Ben Nelson of Nebraska– bennelson.senate.gov/contact-me.cfm — (202) 224-6551
Bill Nelson of Florida — billnelson.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm — (202) 224-5274
Mary Landrieu of Louisiana — landrieu.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm — (202) 224-5824
Kay Hagan of North Carolina — hagan.senate.gov/?p=contact — (202) 224-6342
This is the time when we are all called on to do our best for ourselves, for our neighbors and for the good of the country, all those young people and future generations. Don’t let up. Affordable, reliable health care is now in the hands of the people, if we can persuade Senators that they work for us.
