Clinton Formally Backs Public Option In Bid For Sanders Supporters

[PatrickforO]

35. This is great news! I am so happy that if my knee wasn't screwed up, I'd

dance a jig! And I'll tell you why.

Right now, I have shitty, rationed healthcare from an HMO that cares far more about retaining earnings and cutting costs than it does about providing adequate medical treatment for me. This piece of crap 'coverage' comes complete with financially crippling copays, and between me and my employer, costs a whopping 18.9% of my gross pay. These fucks have raised our premiums double digits over the last five years and we've watched the quality and amount of coverage go down, down, down, while its cost has gone up, up, up. So, basically, we've got 3,500 people working in my city for my employer who now are paying A LOT MORE for MUCH LESS.

I eagerly volunteered for Obama's campaign in '08 because he promised national healthcare, and silly me, I thought that meant that we'd be getting the same type of single payer healthcare system enjoyed by EVERYONE ELSE IN THE ADVANCED WORLD.

But...no...they said they didn't have enough votes, and instead of a tax-funded plan that would cover us all so we didn't have to be wheeled through the hospital's accounting department on the way to surgery so they could make sure we had the means to pay, we got ACA which is basically a Heritage Foundation plan from the '90s that amounts to huge corporate welfare for insurance companies. Am I happy with that? Fuck, no, nor am I grateful.

I always thought the thing about not having enough votes was so weak it was actually lame. I, along with millions of other Americans who campaigned for Obama because he promised national healthcare were just waiting for the call to march on Washington to pressure the do-nothings in Congress to actually do something that benefits us for a change. We could have made this happen!!!

But, no...no one said, but the real reason we didn't get single payer is because it goes against service monopoly provisions in the GATS service trade agreement of 1995. Seriously. The Dems we put in office didn't even have the intestinal fortitude to bring that up, try and renegotiate GATS or get a waiver from the other countries that signed. They could have - there are several pathways to this. But no.

So did I, and do I, feel betrayed? Oh, YES.

Is that why I was such a fervent Bernie supporter? ABSOLUTELY, among other policy stances, but single payer healthcare was the biggie.

This is why Clinton's statement now means so much. I was always going to vote for her, but if she keeps this up, I might actually support her during her campaign.

But you know what? Once elected, I don't want to hear excuses from any Dem we put in national office about how they just couldn't make it happen. I want results. I want single payer, because it is the right thing to do. It is the moral thing to do. We 320,000,000 Americans ALL have the basic human right to healthcare. Period. It is a public good that needs to be publicly funded and extended to ALL Americans.

I am not gonna shut up about it, and I'm not gonna stop pressuring my Representative (a real knuckle dragger, but I call his office at least once a month), and my two Senators. I have written Obama about this many times, and I have been hard on him for his support of TPP, which I honestly do not believe is in the interest of the American worker.

So there it is.

THANK YOU HILLARY CLINTON. WITH THIS YOU HAVE EARNED MY SUPPORT AND I WILL NO LONGER CONSIDER YOU 'THE LESSER OF EVILS.'

But that is conditional. With all due respect, please find a way to MAKE IT HAPPEN when you get in office.