Last week, thousands of people (many from here) asked questions of Members of Congress about healthcare reform via http://progressivecongress.org. On Thursday, several members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus got up on the floor of the House to answer those questions:
A big thank you to Rep. Keith Ellison, Rep. Jan Schakowsky, Rep. Lynn Woolsey, and Rep. Mazie Hirono for their willingness to listen and respond to us!
While the entire hour - and in particular the last half hour - were great to watch and listen to, the key points were:
* These members of Congress want single-payer but don't think we can get it immediately, and so are fighting for a robust public plan to begin to solve the problem;
* The insurance industry is fighting them tooth and nail because they don't want to have to compete with a public plan; and
* In addition to the public plan, there will be significant reforms of the whole healthcare system to eliminate pre-existing conditions and ensure that every American can have access to high-quality affordable healthcare.
They'll be answering questions again this Thursday; the topic has yet to be determined. Feel free to make suggestions at http://feedback.progressivecongress.org !