Hullabaloo

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

 
Campaign For Health Care Choice

by digby


Watching the health care debate unfold is frustrating and predictably enervating. These kinds of debates are often followed by a deepening of public apathy and a sense that government can't help solve the big problems. And this plays into conservative hands since they are the ones who want to stoke that belief so that the citizens don't get it into their heads that they can get an equal shake with those who think they own this country.

We can't let that happen with health care. It is just too important on every level, for individuals, business and the country at large. It's time to get involved. To that end Blue America is launching a campaign to raise money to run some television ads. We've got to get these wavering Democrats off the fence about a public plan choice or this thing is going to fall completely apart before it even starts.

Please go to our Blue America Act Blue Page a to give what you can

Campaign For Health Care Choice

Nothing is more important to the American people than passing health care reform that reduces costs and provides security and coverage for everyone. The economy and the nation's competitiveness will not recover if this isn't done and this may be our last chance to get it done for another generation. Since single payer was taken off the table before the debate even started, the only way to reduce costs and increase coverage is to create a quality public plan choice that will keep the insurance companies relatively honest.

There are several Senators who are resisting this necessary reform and either backing toothless substitutes that will do nothing to rein in the medical industry's unnecessary waste and outrageous profits or looking for excuses to do so. Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, who sits on the finance committee and is running for office in 2010 is one. She has so far equivocated, saying that she's concerned that "if all Congress comes up with is a government-backed plan, then there will be very little incentive for the private industry to be able to be competitive perhaps in the plans they will be offering and the individuals they will be offering.” That's just nonsense. The only incentive these insurance companies will have to stop gouging their patients and hobbling the entire economy is to be forced to compete with a health plan that puts patients over profits.

Perhaps it's not surprising that Lincoln is showing so much compassion for the poor insurance companies. She's taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from them over the years. In fact, she's already received the second highest total of campaign contributions from the industry of any senator up for re-election next year. And the only reform they support is reform that will get the taxpayers to pay the overpriced premiums for the 47 million uninsured without having to change their ways. The fact is that insurance companies are not in any danger of going out of business because of the public plan choice unless they continue the kind of practices that have brought us to this crisis.

A quality public plan is the only way we can ensure that health care reform will reduce costs and increase coverage. It's imperative that Senator Blanche Lincoln get off the fence and support it.

Blue America needs your help to run some ads in Arkansas to persuade her that selling out to her insurance company supporters just won't do. We need for people to tell her that she must stand with the American people who are desperate for real health care choices that will reduce costs and increase coverage.

Please donate what you can to our campaign.

According to Open Secrets, Blanche Lincoln has taken $1,815,241.00 from the health and insurance industries in her career. That's a lot of money and they didn't give it to her because they want her to hold fast on Cuba policy. They have an agenda and they expect her to protect their interests.

But so do the American people and voters in Arkansas have a right to ask her who she thinks she was elected to the US Senate to serve.

Help us out if you can. A few bucks from a lot of people will give us enough to put some ads on the air in Arkansas and make her have to answer to her constituents on this issue and not just the fat cat lobbyists and CEOs in the Medical Industrial Complex.


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digby 6/16/2009 11:00:00 AM |