As debate rages in Washington on how to proceed with health care reform, I wanted to weigh in with my voice. I am a firm believer in single-payer Medicare for All and a proud supporter of Rep. John Conyers’ H.R. 676 and I am convinced that the public option is an essential component of any health care compromise this year. That is why I have signed Dr. Howard Dean’s and Democracy for America’s public option petition. I concur with Dr. Dean that “[a]ny legislation without the choice of a public option is only insurance reform and not the healthcare reform America needs.”  

I explained my perspective on health care reform at last Friday’s 10th congressional district candidate forum at the Jewish Community Center in Walnut Creek:

“I am convinced that we can and we must develop a single-payer universal health care system, because it is efficient. Forty-one years ago we figured out how to do this, and the most expensive part of our population is now covered by a single-payer universal health care system that allows everyone over 65 to participate and to choose their own provider. It is not perfect, but it works. And it is efficient and it is effective. It is one-third the cost in efficiency of the private sector [insurance].”

As California’s first elected State Insurance Commissioner, I never wavered from my support for single-payer health care. In 2005, we published, “Priced Out”, a report that took the pulse of health care in California.  As I explained in the “Priced Out” report, expanding health care coverage has been a passion of mine for decades:

“Since 1966 as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia, building clinics and eradicating smallpox, I have worked to expand health care services. As a freshman member of the California Assembly, I authored the Rural Health Act that created clinics in rural California. While Chairman of the Senate Health & Welfare Committee, I wrote laws that created the nurse practitioner program, the emergency medical services and practitioner standards, and set funding for county health facilities. As Insurance Commissioner in 1992, I developed a universal health care proposal that generated national attention and acclaim. I believe that the only way to fix our health care system is to create a truly universal health care program that is based on a single collector of the money, multiple private and public providers, a basic and uniform benefit package, and sufficient information on medical provider quality so that individuals can choose their own provider.”

I have remained true to a core principle – short-term reforms must be consistent with a long-term vision of an equitable and universal health care system. Single-payer Medicare for All is the solution to our health care woes, and the public option must be part of any health care compromise this year. As someone with the breadth of experience and expertise necessary to tackle our health care crisis, I look forward to working with all stakeholders to make sure all Americans are covered under an affordable universal system.

John Garamendi is the Lieutenant Governor of California and a candidate for Congress in California’s 10th Congressional District. He is a twice elected State Insurance Commissioner, chair of the California Commission for Economic Development, and a fierce advocate for single-payer Medicare for All health care.

Cross Posted on Daily Kos.