Arlen Specter: 'I urge my Senate colleagues to support a robust public option plan'

It's amazing what a little Dem-on-Dem primary action can accomplish.

When President Obama's call for health care reform came under right wing attack this summer, as millions saw in my well-publicized Health Care Town Hall meetings, I pushed back at the critics in order to set the record straight about the direction of health care reform.

As competing bills come up for votes in the Senate, here's the type of bill I'm for:

• I'm for a bill that provides for universal coverage.
  
  
• I'm for a bill which is deficit neutral.
  
  
• I'm for a bill which has specific savings, such as annual examinations to have early detection of diseases.
  
  
• I'm for a bill that does not deny coverage on the basis of preexisting conditions and bans annual and lifetime caps on coverage.
  
  
• I'm for a bill which will bring mandatory sentences for Medicare and Medicaid fraud because it will be a deterrent as opposed to fines.
  
  
• I'm for a bill which will further increase funding for the National Institutes of Health to prevent a lot of illnesses.
  
  
• I'm for a bill that does not erect a massive bureaucracy between the doctor and the patient.

The bottom line is that Americans have a right to be healthy and stay healthy. As I've done throughout my career, I will continue to push for better health care for all Americans.