Public option is the only option

We now know what the Republican plan is for health care reform. In his only town hall meeting, Eric Cantor, Republican Congressman and Republican Party Leader gave us the Republican Plan. In a response to a constituent's plea for help for a relative who had recently been diagnosed with cancer, and just lost her private insurance, he said people like her need to find a charity, This is their plan.

Senator Tom Colburn, a physician, and Republican from Oklahoma, responded to a similar plea from a constituent by telling her to ask her neighbors for help, and that was the American way. Many in this conservative audience applauded him, and he smiled.

Neither Republican showed any compassion at all. Both just immediately launched into the Republican talking points; get charity or ask your neighbors for help. Congressman Mark Kirk has not rebuked either of his colleagues. The Republicans are shameful, and we should let them know that Americans will not stand for this blatant meanness.

A strong public option is the only way to ensure that private for-profit insurance companies do not control our health care, and our lives. Private insurance companies do not exist to provide health solutions, they exist to provide extreme profits to a few at the top. In a country as great as the United States, health care should not be a privilege, only given for profit, but a basic right!

Please let Mark Kirk know that you do not think the solutions to our health care crisis is to ask for charity, or to beg our neighbors for help. The solution is to enact President Obama's reforms with a strong public option. We are a great country, and we can do this.

Chris Peterson

Palatine