Emergency Vigils for healthcare reform - please find your local office and participate

Big Insurance must be giddy right now—news from Washington is that conservatives could be days away from gutting the Senate health care bill's public option.1

But this would mean disaster for real reform, and for the millions of us who want and need it.

We can't let that happen. So today, in 48 states and D.C., we're holding emergency vigils for health care reform—and we need as many people as possible to turn out to send Congress a clear message: we can't afford to wait for real reform with a public option.

You've come to events organized by MoveOn members in your community before—can you come to the emergency vigil in Palo Alto TODAY at5:00 PM? Click here for details:
Yes, I'll be there today at 5:00 PM

We need to act fast to stop the Senate from killing the public option entirely. The so-called "compromises" being discussed don't even come close to a real public plan, the core of reform that will help lower health care costs and inject competition into the insurance industry.

Jacob Hacker, inventor of the public option, said "the new compromise proposals are anything but. They represent calls for advocates of the public plan to eat their crumbs and be happy."2 Another health policy expert, law professor Timothy Jost, says senators are "careening from one bad idea to the next."3

Health care can't be gutted just to appease four obstructionist senators—and we won't let it. So today, thousands of people are gathering at vigils coast to coast to remind Congress in a powerful way that we simply won't compromise away the heart of health care reform. A public option is supported by the decisive majority of Americans, and is key to fixing our health care system.

At the vigils, we'll hear stories from regular Americans who are hurting under our broken system, community leaders fighting for real reform, and progressive lawmakers working with us to win. And we'll invite the media to get the story out even further.

We need big numbers at the vigils to send a clear message to Washington. Can you come to the vigil in Palo Alto at 5:00 PM today? Click the link below to RSVP:

Yes, I'll be there: http://pol.moveon.org/event/events/event.html?event_id=99747&id...

Sorry, I can't make it: https://pol.moveon.org/donate/costofdelay.html?id=18192-2501943-1IJ...

Thanks for all you do.

–Kat, Carrie, Lenore, Stephen, and the rest of the team



Sources:

1. "Stabenow: Final public option to be completed 'in the next few days,'" The Hill, December 7, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85709&id=18192-2501943-1IJoaUx&t=6

2. "You call this a compromise?" The New Republic, December 6, 2009
http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-treatment/you-call-compromise

3. "The Health Care Arena," by Professor Timothy Stoltzfus Jost, December 6, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=85708&id=18192-2501943-1IJoaUx&t=7

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