At the protest this morning, Geri Jenkins, RN, President of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, said, "There’s a reason that nurses are fighting for this private option opt-out. We see the harm and damage that private insurance companies wreak on our patients. This amendment is hope for guaranteed healthcare and we ask you to put it back into the bill."

The Kucinich Amendment could not be more straight-forward: it allows states to opt out of the national healthcare reform proposal and set up their own state-based single-payer systems. More background is here. And here you can read Rep. Kucinich’s thoughts on the situation.

Update: Here also is a letter from Kucinich and other leading House progressives to Speaker Pelosi.

The amendment was added to the bill in a bi-partisan committee vote, and trumps the objections of many moderate and conservatives that individual states are being forced into a national solution. In California, for one, is eager to act as a laboratory of democracy. Twice the state has passed single-payer systems only to see them vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger. Arnold will be gone soon—-but one more barrier remains in the way once he’s gone, which are a series of federal regulations. The Kucinich amendment would remove those barriers...and not just California, but other states like Maine and Pennsylvania would very seriously consider this private option opt-out

If the Kucinich amendment gets lifted, that means states can opt of the public option in favor of shuffling more of their residents into cruel for-profit insurers...but they can’t opt out in favor of guaranteed healthcare.

As Rep. Kucinich wrote yesterday, we are at a critical point for the healthcare debate. The reforms are being eviscerated from inside the Capitol. Progressives need a victory in this healthcare bill, one that can give us hope for turning around the lobbyist-driven bill. Nurses need to know their patients will be guaranteed healthcare. And patients need support from all of us.

Please call Henry Waxman and tell him that progressives and patients are tired of doing all the compromising on this bill—and we want the chance to bring single-payer systems to our states!