Submitted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow on
Just two months ago, I wrote you about my own collision with "my" health insurance company -- which refused to cover the health care that, my own doctors and rehab experts thought I needed to deal with my broken leg.
I wasn't alone, of course. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have had their private insurance companies do the same thing – even after (like me) they had paid insurance premiums for many years. To those companies, super-profits were more important that theior customers' health.
I asked you to write your Senators about why this experience showed how crucial it is to include a "public option" in the reform of health care – to keep the private companies honest by offering a government program like Medicare as a choice.
Hundreds of you did write.
Thanks to you and millions like you, the "public option" came back from the grave where the insurance companies had tried to bury it. We the people can make a difference. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said after a march for voting rights, our legs can pray through holy action. I would add: even, especially, when they are broken.
Now the House of Representatives is on the verge of a crucial vote on the bill that has finally come to the floor. It does include a public option, the insurance companies are still trying to kill it, and the vote may be very close.
So --- Please write your Congressperson, right now!
You can do it very simply by clicking here --
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/602/t/4180/campaign.jsp?campaign_KE...
and using the model letter we have provided. Please insert your own language, referring to your own experience, and then click to send it as a fax.
Thank you – not just on behalf of my own broken leg, but for millions of Americans – all of us! -- who deserve decent health care at a reasonable cost .
Shalom, Arthur