Demand single-payer plan

I am a lifelong Washington state resident, and I’m writing today to express my disappointment with the lack of a strong public insurance option in the Healthy Americans Act. I believe that a plan which focuses on mandated purchase of private insurance is an ineffective way to approach health care reform, and does not offer working Americans the care they deserve.

A single-payer public health care plan is both the most ethical and the most efficient way to guarantee care to all citizens. The United States currently spends more per capita on health care than any of the other industrialized nations which have a single-payer system, contrary to the common fear that such a system would create a sprawling and expensive government bureaucracy. In fact, the administrative savings from a single-payer plan would likely be enough to cover all uninsured Americans, and eliminate co-payments and deductibles.

I am urging all Washingtonians to get involved and write our senators in order to get them to support the public health care option that we all truly need and desire. Write as often as possible. Inundate them with our calls, and do not let them forget why they were elected.

Bryan Peterson

Ephrata