Reply #148: I sent this email just now...

[Lifelong Protester]

Dear President Obama,
We all wept with joy when you were elected this last November. But now, many of us are inwardly weeping to see that the promised health care reform is now becoming 'health insurance' reform.
You must know how desperate people are, especially those without voice: the poor, the elderly, the marginalized individuals who need health care reform the most, but from whom you probably will not hear. I speak for them and myself when I ask, no, by now I am begging: WE NEED SINGLE PAYER UNIVERSAL health care NOW.

I cannot stress enough how I feel we are at the turning point here, and any compromises with the RW fringe, and most dastardly, the BIG INSURANCE companies, are non-productive, and really blocking true reform.

Do not fall prey to the idea that health coops or not-for profit insurance is enough of a sweeping reform. I have good health insurance from my employer (a school) and it is non-profit. The cost of family insurance is now $1600 a month~nearly 40% of my salary! I could not afford it if I was laid off!
Please stay strong, and know that we need affordable and TRUE health care reform. Medicare for all would be the best. Insurance companies could still sell us supplemental plans and stay in business, and everyone would be covered.

PLEASE! Don't let this moment pass. WE elected you to get real reform, and to cover all Americans. I like the fact that the whole pre-existing condition problem would be done away with, but that is meaningless if it means that an insurance company can drain your savings for premiums.
Still counting on you,
Lydia Gnos