San
Francisco City Mayor Gavin Newsom is urging people to sing a petition to the
president asking for public option in health care. Here is the copy of it. Sign
if you support it. I signed.
Dear Friend:
President Obama is right – the only
way we are going to have real health care reform in the United States is by
providing a public plan.
But right now, special interests in Washington, D.C. are doing everything they
can to stop public health care from materializing. They say it is too
expensive, will limit choice and diminish the quality of care.
This is simply not true and we need to fight back.
Sign our petition and show your
support for President Obama’s plan to reform the health care system.
In San Francisco, we are proving the
special interests wrong.
Two years after we launched the United States’ first universal health care
program, Healthy San Francisco, almost 70% of previously uninsured San
Franciscans are now enrolled in our public program.
Our experience in San Francisco is proving what most Americans already know –
it is much less expensive to keep people well than it is to treat their
sickness. This is particularly true when much of the treatment for uninsured
Americans is provided in costly emergency rooms. We are providing health care
at a cheaper rate than similar private care and we are doing this in the middle
of one of the worst recessions in history.
The President is making the case for a public plan across the country. But he
needs your help if we are going to defeat the special interests and get
Congress to act in our best interests.
As Congress gets closer to taking action on national health care reform, we
need to make our voices heard. The stakes are too high. The health of our
nation and its economic recovery depend on it. We need a public option.
Sign our petition and show your support for President Obama’s plan to reform
the health care system.
Sincerely,
Gavin Newsom
