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No "Get Out of Jail Free" Card for Private Insurance Companies
  1. Signatures
    343 out of 500
    Petitioning
    1. The President of the United States (+ 2 others)
      Petitioning
      close
      • The President of the United States
      • The U.S. Senate
      • The U.S. House of Representatives
  2. Created By
    Timothy Foley
    New York, NY
About this Petition Petition Letter
Why This Is Important

"I strongly believe that Americans should have the choice of a public health insurance option operating alongside private plans. This will give them a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep insurance companies honest."
                -- President Barack Obama

For private insurance companies, cherry-picking the healthiest customers, denying care to those who need it, raising premiums every year, and charging exorbitant administrative costs hasn't just been part of the game, it's how they've made their bread and butter.

It's time to change the game.  That means decreasing the monopoly of private insurance and increasing public coverage.  And it means doing it now... not 5 years from now.

President Obama and a majority of Democratic allies in Congress, support the creation of a public health insurance option, similar to Medicare, to compete directly with private insurers.  The public option would be available to all Americans who are non-elderly, do not have an employer plan, and do not qualify for Medicaid. The benefits would be the same as those given to Members of Congress.  We would be able, for the first time, to choose between guaranteed public coverage or private insurance.  Private insurance would have to compete not just on profit, but on cost and quality.

But many in the House and the Senate, including moderate Senators and Blue Dog House Democrats, are pushing for a "trigger" option:  we would trust private insurance to fix the mess they helped create for a few years.  If it turns out they're still valuing profits over people, we'd create a public plan then.

This denies us a choice NOW.  This idea of a trigger isn't competition, and this isn't keeping the private insurers honest.  It's a "get out of jail free" card.

All Senators, Representatives, and the President too that "just getting a deal done" isn't acceptable.  If they want a public plan, they need to fight for it now.

Recent Signatures

No Trigger on the Public Plan. No Way!

Dear Representative

I agree with the president when he writes, "I strongly believe that Americans should have the choice of a public health insurance option operating alongside private plans. This will give them a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep insurance companies honest."

I also agree with Paul Krugman when he says, "So let me offer Congress two pieces of advice: 1) Don’t trust the insurance industry.  2) Don’t trust the insurance industry."

A public health insurance option would give me choice for the first time between public and private coverage, it would improve quality and transparency, and it would force private insurance to start competing on costs and quality, not just by enlarging their profits and denying care.  This is at a time when 94% of health insurance markets are non-competitive, and both premiums and profits for insurance companies have seen double digit growth for years.

But many are suggesting we need to solve our health care problems not now, but down the road -- that we should create a public plan as a "fallback" plan, that we trust the private insurance companies who helped get us into this mess will be the ones to get us out and, if in a few years they're still using business practices that put profits over people, only then will we "trigger" the public plan.  This isn't giving the American people a choice and this isn't fostering competition -- it's a "Get Out of Jail Free" card.

It is a stupid idea.

But I am worried that many, including the president, will be tempted to allow it.  So let me put this as clearly as I can:

No health care reform without a public health insurance option.
No trigger.
No way.

[Your name]