Dear Sen. Schumer,
Congratulations on the recent vote to debate health care reform in the U.S. Senate. It is historic on so many levels and I support your efforts with everything I am.
However, the Sunday morning after that vote, I watched you on one of the Sunday morning media shows plead with reform opponents to allow an "opt out" provision of some sort. You said something on the order of: "Just because you don't want the public option, don't make it impossible for me to get it."
This troubles me. If this "opt out" provision comes to pass, millions of Americans will be condemned to continued poor health care options. Those Americans who live in places like Texas and Alabama deserve good health care, too.
I'm a life-long Texan and, in so many ways, damned proud to be one. But I also know our state's miserable record where it comes to human services. I have no illusions, no reason to hope that our state's Republican leadership will embrace health care reform, particularly anything that smacks of a public option. After all, these are the same yahoos who rejected federal stimulus funds because it's not friendly to business and might force Texas to improve and modernize the way it handles unemployment.
Senator, I know who represents Texas in the United States Senate. You do, too. They do not represent me in this matter; nor do they represent the hundreds of thousands of Democrats and Independents in Texas who believe, as you and I do, that this nation cannot afford to continue to pay premium prices for third-rate health care outcomes.
If left up to these senators and political leaders from Texas, there will be no public option or health care reform at all, which will plunge citizens in the South even deeper into poverty.
Please, Senator. You, and other progressive senators, must not give up on a public option that is available to all Americans, and not just to a fortunate few.
