Public health care is crucial to reform

 Despite criticisms to the contrary, I think a public health insurance plan is crucial to real health care reform. Insurance  and pharmaceutical lobbyists are smearing the public insurance option at every opportunity in order to protect their big profits.
It’s actually all about choice. With a public health insurance option, Americans will be able to choose between their current insurance and a high-quality, government-run plan similar to Medicare. If you like what you currently have, you can keep it. If you don’t have any insurance or dislike your plan, you will be able to get the public health plan.
The public plan will be high-quality coverage with a choice of doctors. Government-run plans worldwide have a track record of innovating to improve quality, because they’re not just focused on short-term profits.
The public health insurance option won’t have to  spend money on things such as CEO bonuses, shareholder dividends, or excessive advertising, so it will cost a lot less. Plus, the private plans will have to lower their rates and provide better value to compete, so people who keep their current insurance will save, too.
If created, the public plan, will always be there for you and your family. A for-profit insurer can close, move out of the area, or just kick you off their insurance rolls.
Critics are saying, the public plan will be so good that the private plans will be unable to compete. They  also are saying that anything the government does can be done better by private industry. Logic tells me the critics can’t have it both ways.
Please contact your congressional representatives and ask them to support the choice inherent in a public insurance plan option.

Jo Davis
Shawnee