From "The Color of Change" re Opt Out:

[Are_grits_groceries]

The Senate is closing in on a health care bill with a public health insurance option, a key ingredient of meaningful health care reform. It's great news.

But conservatives and insurance companies are fighting hard against the public option, so Senate leadership has compromised by including an "opt-out" clause, which would allow individual states to choose not to participate in the program.1

There's a real danger here. In the stimulus fight, we saw Republican governors and legislators refuse federal dollars for political gain. The same thing could happen with health care reform, with everday people in states like Lousiana, Alabama, and South Carolina -- states with large Black, poor, and working-class populations -- left out.2,3

You can help. Join us in calling on the White House and Congress to make sure that, in the end, we have a true public option that serves all of us, regardless of where we live:

http://www.colorofchange.org/healthcare/?id=2039-1041508

We understand the need for compromise and negotiation, but we also want to make sure that there is no community that gets negotiated away in the process.

Another compromise that was floated, a so-called "trigger," would be far worse than "opt-out"--it would basically kill the public option through indefinite delay. Right now a "trigger" looks less likely than the "opt-out," which is good.4

But the "opt-out" has problems too. The public option will keep insurance companies honest and make health care more affordable. That's critical because in many states, one or two insurance companies dominate the whole market.5 These are the states that need the public option the most, and allowing local Republicans to opt them out--just to score political points--makes no sense.

Including "opt-out" may be the best way to get a bill through the Senate with a public option--but that won't be the end of the process, and it doesn't mean "opt-out" will be in the final bill. The House still needs to decide what exactly will be in its health care bill. And once both the House and the Senate have passed legislation, they'll have to negotiate with each other, and the White House, to reconcile the differences between the two bills.

That's why we need to make it clear that we're watching and that we will demand a public option that's available in every state. Please join us in sending this message to Congress and the White House, then ask your friends and family to do the same:

http://www.colorofchange.org/healthcare/?id=2039-1041508

Thanks and Peace,

-- James, Gabriel, William, Dani and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
October 27th, 2009

Email sent to me 10/27/09