Alan Grayson Proposes A REAL Health Care Reform Bill

This evening Alan Grayson, Orlando's spectacular and effective fighter for ordinary working families in a Congress that overwhelmingly caters to wealthy and powerful special interests, introduced the most real and straight forward healthcare reform bill that's come up so far. Unless Obama makes the House leadership kill H.R. 4789-- a distinct possibility-- this should pass the House more easily than anything that's been proposed for healthcare reform so far. And I bet it could even win cloture in the Senate! His bill offers the opportunity for everyone in the country to buy into Medicare. “Obviously," said Grayson, "America wants and needs more competition in health coverage, and a public option offers that. But it’s just as important that we offer people not just another choice, but another kind of choice. A lot of people don’t want to be at the mercy of greedy insurance companies that will make money by denying them the care that they need to stay healthy, or to stay alive. We deserve to have a real alternative... The government spent billions of dollars creating a Medicare network of providers that is only open to one-eighth of the population. That’s like saying, ‘Only people 65 and over can use federal highways.’  It is a waste of a very valuable resource and it is not fair. This idea is simple, it makes sense, and it deserves an up-or-down vote.”

And Alan Grayson, easily the GOP's #1 target for 2010, deserves our support. Have you ever visited Blue America's Getting Grayson's Back page? If anyone has shown he's earned our backing, it's Alan.







Good Progressives Start Co-Sponsoring Grayson's Bill

The first 10 to sign up:

Donna Edwards (D-MD)
Bob Filner (D-CA)
Barney Frank (D-MA)
Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX)
Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
Chellie Pingree (D-ME)
Jared Polis (D-CO)
Jan Schakowsky (D-IL)
Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH)
Diane Watson (D-CA)

UPDATE: Progressives Flock To Co-Sponsor Grayson's Bill

Forty more signed on after one day. Now there are 50. Here are the newest co-sponsors: John Lewis, Anthony Weiner, Jerrold Nadler, Nydia Velazquez, Keith Ellison, Loretta Sanchez, Hank Johnson, Maxine Waters, Luis Gutierrez, Lynn Woolsey, Marcy Kaptur, Charles Rangel, Patrick Kennedy, Raul Grijalva, Donna Christian-Christensen, John Olver, Corrine Brown, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Marcia L. Fudge, Danny K. Davis, Pedro Pierluisi, Grace Napolitano, Alcee Hastings, John Hall, Shelley Berkley, John Conyers, Jim McGovern, Phil Hare, Betty Sutton, Jim McDermott, Gregorio Sablan, Maurice Hinchey, Carolyn Maloney, Barbara Lee, Elijah Cummings, Gregory Meeks, Edolphus Towns, Al Green, David Wu, and Rush Holt.