It has been a week since Florida Democratic U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, aghast with the shenanigans on Capitol Hill, took matters into his own hands. He introduced a four-page health reform bill (Four! Pages!) that expands Meidcare, i.e., the public option that already exists in this country. His simple bill is called “the Public Option Act. As he puts it, “Three votes on health care, not two. The Senate bill, the reconciliation amendments, and the Public Option Act.” The bill now appears to have drawn 64 co-sponsors. Love the idea or hate it, the YouTube of Grayson’s floor speech introducing it is a gem.
America wants and needs more competition in health coverage, and a public option offers that. But it’s just as important that we offer people not just another choice, but another kind of choice. A lot of people don’t want to be at the mercy of greedy insurance companies that will make money by denying them the care that they need to stay healthy, or to stay alive. We deserve to have a real alternative… The government spent billions of dollars creating a Medicare network of providers that is only open to one-eighth of the population. That’s like saying, ‘Only people 65 and over can use federal highways.’ It is a waste of a very valuable resource and it is not fair. This idea is simple, it makes sense, and it deserves an up-or-down vote.
Grayson has set up a website where voters can support the bill.
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