You know the drill: A baby has something in her hand that's incredibly appealing like a chocolate bar, or say, real healthcare reform, and you slyly remove it from her grasp and offer her melba toast, or in this case, a broken healthcare system.

Yes, the insurance industry is trying to beat us at our own game. They are snatching real healthcare reform from our grasp and offering us fake solutions.

Show the insurance industry that we're anything but defenseless babes. Tell Congress that we want real healthcare reform now!

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1768/t/1546/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27282

What's happening now? Every day a new proposal is invented to try to kill a public health insurance option. Right now, some members of Congress are trying to kill the public health insurance option, not by opposing it outright, but by pushing weak measures and calling them "public plans." The latest is a proposal for small regional co-ops that have largely failed in the past to bring costs down or to provide real options for families.[1]

What is a public health insurance option anyway? A public health insurance option is just that - an option. Families who like their current private health insurance plan can keep things exactly how they are now. But families who don't have access to another health insurance plan would have the option to be covered under a public health insurance plan.

Women, in particular, need a public insurance option because they are less likely to get health insurance through their jobs and more than twice as likely as men to get employer-sponsored coverage through their spouses. And as the economy worsens, many employers are reducing healthcare coverage for dependents, leaving millions of women and children at risk.[2]

It's no wonder that an overwhelming majority of Americans - 83% - support a public health insurance option.[3] Weak half-measures like the "co-op" plan are no substitute for real reform.

Congress needs to hear from the public now because insurance companies are aggressively lobbying against the public plan option. They need to hear from real people like you and me. Please forward this message on to friends and family and contact your members of Congress today:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1768/t/1546/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27282

Thanks for your work on behalf of our nation's families!

--Donna, Ashley, Julia, Anita, Kristin and the MomsRising Team

[1] "A Public Health Plan," The New York Times, June 21, 2009, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/21/opinion/21sun1.html

[2] "Women and Health Coverage: The Affordability Gap", Elizabeth M. Patchias and Judy Waxman, April 2007- Issue Brief, http://www.nwlc.org/pdf/NWLCCommonwealthHealthInsuranceIssueBrief2007.pdf

[3] "New Poll Shows Tremendous Support for Public Health Care Option," Blog for Our Future, June 15, 2009, http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009062515/new-poll-shows-tremendous-support-public-health-care-option