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I sent this to President Obama last night:

Dear President Obama:

I’m a retired software engineer on a fixed income. I raised six kids and have long been very aware of the many evolving challenges that face our nation. In addition to having some family members in the medical field, I’ve had many personal experiences with our for-profit health insurance system that have led me to conclude that eventually, we need to move to a single payer system that provides health care to every person living in our country.

Of course, the resistance to change in this area is enormous due to the selfish interests of the for-profit health insurance industry. I have no doubt whatsoever that their recent interest in being at the table while industry reform is discussed is directly connected with their desire to shape the outcome so as to keep them in the middle of the picture – siphoning off a large amount of money that heals not a single citizen.

With all that is on your plate, I’m quite concerned that you may yield to the pleas from the insurance industry that you adopt a policy that requires all citizens to be insured, but requires the insurance to be purchased from the for-profit insurance industry. This would be a tragic mistake and would perhaps waste the only opportunity that you’ll have to properly address this major problem.

With the enormous might of this industry, you’ll be unable to immediately eliminate them (as a crew of middlemen eating the nation’s health care funds and often actively prevent actual health care) and go directly to a single payer system funded more efficiently by tax dollars. However, if you create a public insurance option that is similar to the benefits that Congress has had – placing this alongside the offerings from the for-profit insurance industry – my bet is that many people will choose this option in preference to any commercial offering. Across time, this will drive the for-profit health insurers out of business and we’ll wind up with a single payer system for the lion’s share of our citizens.

Please make sure that this happens!

Thank you!