Citizens Closing the Gap

I submitted this as a letter to the editor to several central FL newspapers this morning, in response to an email alert from Howard Dean.

Special interests and big money political donors are driving the health care debate away from public options that would ensure all Americans have access to good healthcare at costs they can afford. The NY Times editorial board wrote earlier this month, “Lobbyists and Congressional aides have discussed a possible compromise: Congress would authorize a new government-run insurance program, but it would come into existence only if certain conditions were met - if, for example, private insurers failed to rein in health costs by a certain amount after several years.” In other words, we have finally arrived at the opportunity to devise a desperately needed public health care option,  only to find that our privately financed legislators are bending to the will of their special interest financiers in the insurance and health care industry. This is no compromise at all, but a political diversion that will continue private insurer control of health care for another generation: a system where public health is at direct odds with private profit and insurers hold ultimate power to decide who gets treatment, and where tens of millions go uninsured or underinsured and subject to financial ruin if they lose a job or get ill.