Howard Dean is "drawing a line in the sand" on Health Care.

[bvar22]

Will you STAND with him?

Stand With Dr. Dean

During the election, President Obama proposed a health care plan that would give every American the freedom to choose between keeping their private insurance—if they have any—and choosing a universally available public health insurance option like Medicare.

But for-profit insurance companies and HMOs are already working hard to strip this public health insurance option from any upcoming health care bill. They don't want us to have a choice, and they'll stop at nothing to kill real reform. Trouble is, some in Congress are siding with the insurance companies—and against what's best for the rest of us.

Today, we draw a line in the sand.
A public health insurance option is the only way to guarantee health care for all Americans. And to show that we mean business, we all need to tell Congress we won't settle for less.

If 250,000 of us sign this petition, Dr. Howard Dean will personally deliver it to Congress.

http://pol.moveon.org/standwithdrdean/?rc=homepage

A Public Non-Profit Health Care System is not too hard for America.
38 out of 39 Industrialized Nations have managed to do it.
Americans do not have to settle for less!
Americans support this by a large majority.
The ONLY thing blocking it is our politicians.


Draw a Line in the Sand.
STAND with the good Doctor Dean.
This is NOT something to compromise on with Republicans.
Sign the petition.

[msongs]

1. so is the line in the sand under the wheels of Obama's corporate health care bus? nt

[bvar22]

3. Looks that way,

...but I'm standing for Non-Profit HealthCare with Dean.

[Windy]

4. Msongs... You were a huge Hillary supporter in the primary. Some of the things you post astound me

Some of the positions that Hillary stood in stark contrast with Obama on, i.e., the war, Iraq, etc... you now trash Obama for trending more toward Hillary's beliefs. What is it? Still sore because she didn't win? You are consistently negative. While I'm not thrilled with Geitner and Summers, I still give our president the benefit of the doubt and try to be objective. Not you. You take any and every opportunity to trash every move the man makes.

[stillcool]

8. msongs is very consistent..

and constant. Rarely more than a one-liner, but always the same playground taunts. It's easy for me to ignore, without using ignore.

[lumberjack_jeff]

9. In what way is Obama trending toward Hillary's health care beliefs?

Last I heard, Obama was still of the opinion that optional coverage provided by insurance companies was a viable plan.

Dean is right. It should be universal, and it should be single payer, but at an absolute minimum, the plan needs to include the ability for people to choose public coverage.

[bvar22]

12. I'm curious too.

The NonProfit Public Option was Edward's Platform.
Neither Hillary or Obama mentioned it after Edwards dropped out.
However, Obama is ON RECORD as supporting it in the Primaries.

[kenfrequed]

18. Actually

Edwards was a 'Johnny come lately' to single payer universal. Kucinich was the only one that backed a large scale-full on european style single payer universal coverage plan. Everyone else favored some degree of public-private combination.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. I think that we will get there in the end

however it will take time to to change the system. I wish Howard Dean would be Health Sec

[HelenWheels]

5. Done. nt

[On the Road]

6. I Signed and Gave $20

Dean doesn't fool around. I give his effort a much, much greater chance of success than similar grassroots campaigns.

[Faryn Balyncd]

7. K&R ----- signed ---- Thanks.

[goforit]

10. Private insurance companies scared shitless??? Their execs may loose their multimillion $ homes.

[stray cat]

11. I would probably be willing to pay an extra 20% of my income for it but I would be worse off

personally by it as I currently have a good policy supplemented significantly by my employer.

[mistertrickster]

13. Shut up and sign it. Thank you . . . Your Country. nt

[williesgirl]

14. done and rec'd

[bbgrunt]

15. k & r

[kenfrequed]

16. signed, kicked, and recommended.

I have a good friend that would still be here if there had been a better healthcare plan in existance.

[acmavm]

17. I sign every petition with Dr. Dean's name on it. He is one of the

very few worthy of our trust.

[tabbycat31]

19. signed

[PHIMG]

20. Nobody knows what the public option will be.

Is it going to mean that you can buy into Medicare with no additional funding? If so that will just increase the speed in which medicare dies. Also lets remember that Medicare is crippled because Republicans and Conservadems prevented it from being improved and expanded to keep pace with medical advancement. And look at Medicare Part D.

PNHP thinks that the jerks in Congress are going to turn the Public Option into a government-run PPO (prefered provider) that runs just like a private insurer with high deductibles and co payments. Because if they don't do it like that then they'll "Crowd out" the poor private insurers. I can see this happening. Just so they can say : "hey you got your public option." How is this better than Private Insurance?

The real solution is Single Payer. This improves and expands medicare. It covers everyone from cradle to grave. It returns choice to the American consumer, choice the private insurers have taken from them with IN NETWORK schemes. Single Payer controls costs. Single Payer generates the cost savings to cover everyone. Single Payer means no out of pocket expenses for healthcare which will end self-rationing on your ability to pay (even people with insurance self-ration) and it will end medical bankruptcy.

The fact that Single Payer is "off the table" is the biggest sign that corporate interests have 100% control of our government. I was hoping the new leadership in the White House would challenge this. But they seem to think that they need to do some sort of end run around it with the Public Option. Well first off, don't the insurance companies know what this would do? How long do we wait to know what the Public Option will mean? And won't it just be traded away or watered down at the last minute in conference committee?

I think that single payer advocates can have a role in ensuring the public option goes the right way I just think that we all need to realize that the fight to make healthcare a right in this country will not stop in 2009 and we need to continue to get the word out about Single Payer so that Obama has a mandate to get Single Payer done in 2013, if not sooner.

[Iowa]

21. K&R

[DFW]

22. Obama may yet come to mightily regret taking Rahm's advice and keeping Howard away from HHS

On the outside, Howard is not bound by any loyalty to the government, and can take
up the popular cause with no divided loyalties. On the inside, He would have been
the loyal cabinet member, and gone only as far as Obama would have let him. Howard
will be a thorn--our thorn--in Washington's side now. Lesser minds in Washington
will see this as Howard's revenge. This will be the mindset of people who don't know
Howard at all. He couldn't care less about revenge. He is, at heart, still a doctor who
cares about his patients. Now the country is his patient, and he is getting tired of
waiting for the medicine so far prescribed that isn't working fast enough. I hope he
gives Washington a bellyache.

[Vincardog]

23. Signed

[fadedrose]

24. K