Yesterday my committee voted late into the night on a series of important amendments to the health care bill. While we made great progress, several amendments to provide a robust public option, one of which I cosponsored, did not pass.

I believe a robust public option needs to be part of health care reform and while yesterday's vote was disappointing, the fight to reform health care continues.

We can still add a public option to the bill on the floor of the Senate and if that fails it can be added during conference committee (when members of the House and Senate meet to resolve the differences in their respective bills). But to accomplish this we need you to make your voice heard.

Join me today by adding your name to the call for a public option.

While we must wait to fight another day on the public option, we did make real progress on other key provisions. Several amendments that I introduced did pass the committee – including one to make sure savings from negotiations over drug prices are passed on to consumers and NOT contributing more to pharmaceutical companies' bottom lines and another to reward doctors for providing high quality care and make sure that doctors get paid more for keeping you healthy than for ordering duplicate tests - putting quality over quantity.

As I promised you when this fight began, I've been working day after day and late into the night for real health care reform. There are still many important amendments to debate and to vote on and I promise to keep you updated as this important legislation moves through the Senate. Again, the best way for you to be involved is to make your voice heard.

Thank you,


Maria Cantwell