Earlier this week, I asked you to get your respective Democratic city, county or town committees, as well as Democratic or progressive groups to support the public option resolution. By adopting the public option resolution, your committee or group will officially endorse the idea of health care reform with a strong public option.
Because without a strong public option, there is no reform.
Since Sunday, the resolution did change a little bit. Changes were made to make it a little easier to pass.
Here is the text of the resolution that your committee can adopt:
Public Option Resolution
WHEREAS, the heath care system of the United States is in crisis, with almost fifty million Americans lacking any health insurance, tens of millions more lacking adequate coverage, and millions more who do have private coverage paying increasingly unaffordable premiums, resulting in inadequate access to care and premature death, illness, or financial ruin for millions of Americans; and
WHEREAS, public polls show that an overwhelming majority of Americans want health care reform to offer the choice of a robust public option similar to Medicare in order to, in the words of President Obama, "keep the insurance companies honest," while co-ops or so-called "triggers" are inadequate in and of themselves to address the health care crisis by creating significant competition for the medical insurance industry; and
WHEREAS, Republicans and their allies in the health insurance industry have organized and funded groups of extremists to disrupt efforts on the part of the Democratic majority and administration to reasonably discuss the issue with the American people, and have demonstrated an utter unwillingness to compromise in any way to pass meaningful health care reform;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that [insert group name here] urges Democratic members of Congress to vote for only such healthcare reform proposals as contain a robust public option at all stages of the legislative process including conference and reconciliation, and encourages Democratic legislators to use any available parliamentary means to pass such reform;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that [insert group name here] shall send a copy of this resolution to all Democratic members of Congress who represent any of our members.
As of today, I have contacted six county committees in my area about putting the resolution on the agenda for their next meeting. It has been confirmed to me that four of these counties will be voting on the resolution. I have also have confirmation from at least one Democratic/progressive group that they will add the resolution to the agenda and put it up for a vote. I will be doing more targeting today to see if I can get more county committees to vote on this measure.
At Netroots Nation, Gov. Howard Dean hosted a town hall. He discussed the public option throughout the question-and-answer session. Here is a video of Dean discussing the public option:
We need real health care reform in this country. While I support a single-payer system, I also believe that the public option offers our greatest chance at reform. We need to get this done and we need to have the support of the Democratic Party - the same party that holds the White House and both houses of Congress.
