...and a time to everything under heaven.

-Ecclesiastes 3:1 or The Byrds, take your pick


It's time to stop stamping our feet over the Public Option and other noble health care reforms we wish were in the legislation that Congress will soon pass. It's time to embrace the momentous change embodied in what will be and push with all our might to change the last few minds that stand in its way.

I say this after much thought and consideration, having not only worked for the Public Option for over a year, but actually having made some progress in aligning my Democratic senator and some congressmen with support for this proposal. It's season will come again. It's time has not yet arrived.

But what this Congress will pass into law within the week, despite the best attempts of Republicans, Corporate Medicine and Tea Party poseurs to derail reform, is the boldest strengthening of the social safety net in two generations. I'm all for it.

• Think of it: 32 million uninsured Americans added to the rolls of people with access to health care. That's 32,000,000. Thirty-two MILLION.

• Generous subsidies or an opt-out of the mandate for those who are poor.

• $1.3 trillion in federal deficit reduction over the next 20 years.

• Taxes levied on investment income (at a very modest 3.8 percent), forcing those who make money off of making money to pay their share alongside those who earn their living from the sweat of their brows.

• A long--needed increase in payments to doctors under Medicaid.

• Insurance exchanges that must include at least one non-profit insurance choice for every American.

• Truly portable and affordable health insurance for those who leave their jobs, whether by choice or pink slip.

• Help for small businesses of 50 or fewer employees and incentives for medium and large firms to provide coverage for their workers.

• A ban on refusing coverage for pre-existing conditions. A ban on charging those who have such conditions more. A ban on charging women higher premiums for the same insurance. A ban on recission. A ban on lifetime benefit caps.

• More money for community health centers, especially in rural areas.

• Abortion neutrality that neither provides taxpayer funds nor prohibits the private purchase of abortion coverage.

• Preventive care on a scale never seen before, required in insurance plans by law.

• Extension of the Medicare program's solvency by at least a decade, probably more.

• Elimination of the 15 percent federal overpayment to insurers for Medicare Advantage plans.

The list of changes for the better to our health care system goes on, and so will the work of refining these reforms over the succeeding years.

I am not satisfied with this reform, but the time for holding out hope for perfection has passed. The time for converting congressional "No" votes to "Yes" votes in a surge of historic public outcry for real change, once again and for all, is upon us. This day is the meaning of "the fierce urgency of now."

Call your senators and representatives today and tell them to vote for comprehensive, affordable and quality health care. Don't wait. Pick up the phone.

This is our season, and it will not soon come again.