Senator Feingold,

After last night’s passage of what is more or less the Senate’s version of HCR through the House, the reconciliation bill will soon come to the Senate. I am writing to implore you, both in the name of fiscal responsibility and fundamental human rights, to submit an amendment to the bill containing a strong public option.

As it stands, the price of health insurance for both families and the nation is too high, and under this bill will only get worse. By 2019, under this bill, the cost to America for health care will be over 20% of our GDP. One in five dollars will go toward our broken, dysfunctional, often lethal health care system. One in five. We simply cannot afford that while our competitors overseas pay a fraction as much of their GDP for true, universal coverage.

Simultaneously, under this bill, the cost to end consumers continues to rise, not fall. Our friends and neighbors cannot afford coverage today – maintaining the status quo is both reprehensible and unacceptable.

As well as all but guaranteeing the continuation of the uniquely American misery that is our health care system, this bill institutes a dramatic new tax of a nature never before seen in American history. Americans will be compelled, by law and enforced by the IRS, to purchase the products of a private industry. This is completely without precedent in our country. Since when do we have so little faith in the free market that we must write laws to subvert it, for the benefit of a precious few? Taxes were meant, by the Founders and all the generations between, to fund the government, to enact programs in the public interest, overseen by and run by dedicated public servants. That is not the case with this bill, to put it lightly. Now, with minimal and insufficient oversight, private companies will determine the coverage and care we receive and then they can send the IRS to force us to pick up the tab.

Fortunately, both of these glaring issues with the bill share a simple and overwhelmingly popular remedy: a robust public option. A robust public option, according to the CBO, would save 110 billion dollars over 10 years. That money could be spent on any number of worthwhile public programs, or simply used to pay down the deficit – either way, it would be a remarkable improvement, fiscally speaking. As well as being prudent spending, a robust public option would remove the severe moral hazard of legislating profit for private companies. I run a small business myself, I value private enterprise – and that’s precisely why I want it to remain *private*. If we must compel insurance ownership, then it is a public service, and public services are to be provided by the government. We don’t have private police or private firefighters. We don’t have a private army, though Blackwater takes us dangerously close. We shouldn’t have a private-only insurance system if the IRS is the bill collector. Let people choose how to spend their money on insurance, if they must be compelled to own it. Give them the choice of a well managed, nonprofit, federal program. A safety net against the greed and venality seen every day in our cruel and bloodthirsty health sector.

If they choose not to avail themselves of it, as most estimates say most people will, then so be it. They retain their freedom to choose, merely by having a choice, and merely by the presence of that choice, and the downward pressure on costs that it represents, America saves over a hundred billion dollars that would otherwise be wasted, poured into private coffers.

Thank you for your time,

John J Sears

PS: For more information, as well as a number of ideas on how to fix and improve this bill, please see Fire Dog Lake at http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/03/19/fact-sheet-the-truth-about-the-health-care-bill/ and http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/03/22/signed-sealed-but-not-delivered-six-big-flaws-need-fixing-to-make-new-law-meaningful-health-care-reform/