Deadline: August 31, to have your say on health care

In the Fall issue of YES!, Health Care for All, we alert readers to an opportunity to tell the federal government what you want for our health care system.

We discovered in the process of researching this issue that there is enormous support for universal health care in the U.S. Health care has become the number one domestic issue. People are facing bankruptcies, being turned away at the hospital door, digging deeper every year just to keep up with sky rocketing insurance premiums. Businesses, too, are suffering as they choose between keeping up with premium price increases or passing the burden on to employees.

Americans know what people in the rest of the developed world know. Universal health care, with government's involvement, works. It can cover everyone at a fraction of the cost we are now paying in the U.S.

If you want to let the federal government know your views on this, you have the opportunity now, but you'll have to act soon. The comment period closes on August 31.

Congress created the Citizens' Health Care Working Group to hear from Americans about health care and to make recommendations to Congress and the president. Their recommendations contain some lofty goals. But, even after hearing loud and clear from Americans across the U.S., their recommendations include only vague language about health care finance. Unless we move away from the expensive, bureaucratic, bloated private insurance system, we can't hope to control costs and bring health care into reach of all Americans.

That is the conclusion your editors reached as we developed this issue.

Whatever your conclusions are, let the federal government know by the August 31 deadline! Here's the link.